


Cheating Death

by SeriouslySam



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Ron Weasley, Drama, F/M, Family, Harry is a Good Dad, Head Auror Harry Potter, Mystery, Parenthood, Teddy is a Potter, Veil of Death (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 62,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeriouslySam/pseuds/SeriouslySam
Summary: Head Auror Harry Potter hated the Department of Mysteries. He hated dealing with Unspeakables and disliked their holier than thou attitude. When Harry is called upon to identify a man who has been dead for years that the Unspeakables found, he suspects that there’s something more sinister going on.
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 15
Kudos: 84





	1. Beyond the Veil

**Author's Note:**

> Deathly Hallows is canon. Slight tweak on the epilogue as Teddy lives with the Potters. Post series tidbits from JK Rowling are not necessarily followed either, i.e. Ron is still an Auror and doesn’t work at the joke shop with George.

**“Cheating Death”**

**“Chapter One: Beyond the Veil”**

Harry Potter was annoyed. He had been summoned to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries over an hour ago by the Department of Mysteries. They had, apparently, discovered someone hidden within the department and needed Harry’s help identifying the individual. Harry tried to send another Auror but Gareth Greengrass, who headed the department, was very adamant that it should be Harry to identify this mysterious person.

If there was anything that Harry hated more than waiting around doing nothing while, no doubt, reports piled up on his desk at work, it was dealing with Unspeakables. They all seemed to have the skill of saying as little as humanly possible and had the uncanny ability to answer complex questions with a single word. Gareth Greengrass was quite possibly the worst.

Harry knew it was going to be a bad day when Greengrass knocked on his office door and asked him to accompany him to St. Mungo’s. What had started his foul mood was that Greengrass didn’t even have the respect to ask him for his help, he downright demanded it in a way only a pureblood wizard could accomplish.

Letting out a deep sigh, Harry was happy that he was in his right mind to grab the file he was working on off his desk before leaving work. At least it gave him something to do as the time ticked on in the waiting room. As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Greengrass told him he’d just be a few moments as he wanted to have a quick word with the unexpected visitor and would grab Harry shortly. _Shortly_ , Harry snorted.

“They’re ready for you now, Auror Potter,” a female voice called for him in a monotone voice.

Harry looked up and saw an unfamiliar woman standing in front of him. She had on the traditional, pitch-black Unspeakable robes. Her blonde hair was tucked neatly in a bun on top of her head. She had the classic serious look about her that all Unspeakables seemed to have when they were on duty. Ron and him had theorized that, while on duty, Unspeakables must have to take some sort of potion to make them as emotionless as possible. Hermione had rolled her eyes at the theory.

Harry stood up and straightened the jacket of his three-piece navy suit which was underneath his open scarlet red Auror robes. He shoved his file underneath his left arm. The Unspeakable turned briskly on her heels and started down the corridors of the fourth floor. Harry, rubbing his stubbled chin wearily, followed her wordlessly. Looking down, he idly adjusted his Head Auror badge on his robes which had sagged to the right slightly.

They winded through the corridors, passing countless amounts of rooms in the spell damaged section. Tucked away, in the very back of the hospital, Harry noticed a slew of people. There were three Unspeakables huddled around Gareth Greengrass. Draco Malfoy, donning his Healer robes, and another Healer that Harry did not recognize were also amongst the group.

“Ah, Auror Potter, I hope you don’t mind I’ve taken the liberty of assigning my granddaughter’s husband to this case. Draco was just telling me you two know each other,” Greengrass spoke pleasantly as he gestured to the tall blonde beside him. “I thought the less people involved the better. We haven’t run into anything quite like this before.”

“I’d like to know if you’re going to fill me in on what’s going on here,” Harry said dryly. “I’ve been waiting for over an hour in a waiting room when I have a million other things I could be doing in the office right now.”

“Yes, I understand how much paperwork us Heads seem to have. I had yet to ask the individual any questions before. Draco was kind enough to see to him as quickly as possible to ensure there was nothing wrong with him medically. We’ve had to secure this corridor. Draco had all other patients transferred to other rooms and I had some of my Unspeakables place quite a bit of privacy charms around the room and the corridor so no prying ears can be had.”

“So, if this is private enough for you, do you care on telling me what’s going on?” pushed Harry as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

“How familiar are you with the Death Chamber within the Department of Mysteries?” Greengrass asked solemnly as he clasped his hands in front of him.

“The Death Chamber?” Harry’s heart skipped a beat in his chest but he did not show the emotion on his face. “There’s a Veil in there that separates our world from the afterworld.”

“Correct, Auror Potter. We’ve recently started a new… _experiment_ with the Veil. To our surprise, we pulled someone from the Veil,” Greengrass explained.

“You pulled a dead man out of the Veil and now he’s alive?” Harry questioned with his brow furrowed. “Is he an Inferi or is there some other kind of Dark Magic you want me to investigate about him?”

“No, no, no, nothing like that, Auror Potter. The man is very much alive and I don’t believe there is darkness surrounding him. He was in a sort of stasis when he was beyond the Veil and-”

“I’m sorry, stasis? What do you mean?” Harry inquired with a blink.

“It means that he’s been virtually untouched since he’s been beyond the Veil,” Malfoy now spoke up. “He is the age he was when he went through the Veil. His health is, presumably, the same. Nothing has changed. It’s like his body slowed down until it was more or less frozen in time. It’s as though he went through the Veil and then less than a second later came back.”

“The dead can’t come back to life,” Harry said grimly.

“We don’t think he was dead when he passed through the Veil,” Greengrass explained.

“What does this have to do with me exactly?”

“We think you will be able to identify the man,” Greengrass spoke simply.

Harry sighed. His eyes flickered to the drawn curtains of the window into the hospital room. He reached up a hand and ran it through his already messy locks. The synapses in his brain fired at rapid speed.

“Is it a dark wizard? Are you trying to tell me you think you have a Death Eater in there from the war or something?” inquired Harry.

“Why don’t you and I go speak with him?” Greengrass suggested as he stepped aside and motioned at the door behind him. “Malone, Hyde, please stand guard outside the room for us. Draco, perhaps, you should come in with us in case the patient gets… agitated.”

Malfoy nodded and turned on his heels to open the door to the room. Greengrass followed him. Harry brought up the rear as he thought there must be some sort of joke about a Healer, an Auror, and an Unspeakable that was bound to be funny. Harry entered the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

He turned to see Greengrass standing at the foot of the hospital bed. Draco had walked around to stand on the other side of the bed. Sitting in the bed, looking pale and confused, was Sirius Black. Harry stilled by the door as he stared at the man in front of him. He looked just like he had the last time Harry had seen him in the Department of Mysteries. Shoulder length black hair, a couple days stubble on his cheeks. He looked thirty-six which made Harry only six years younger than his godfather now.

“I…” Harry started but cut himself off. “ _Sirius_?”

Sirius breathed heavily from where he sat on the hospital bed, his chest heaved as he continued to stare at his now adult godson. At the very mention of his name, what little color he had on his face was completely gone. He looked as white as the eggshell sheets around him. His mouth opened for a few seconds before he closed it.

“You are confirming then that this is Sirius Black?” Greengrass questioned.

Harry snapped his head towards the man. His left arm flew up to rub his chin as the file that was tucked neatly under his armpit went tumbling to the ground. Papers flew out including a Father’s Day picture that the kids had made him just two days prior. Harry’s eyes glanced at the drawing that had Teddy’s small and neat writing where he had written _Happy Father’s Day_ on the top of the sheet and signed his name at the bottom, James’ careful and painfully large letters that spelled out his name, Albus’ shaky letters that somewhat resembled his name, and Lily’s scribbles. The picture in the middle was a combination of little drawings from all the kids. Teddy drew a rather good Snitch, James drew a lumpy fire-breathing dragon, Albus drew little potato people that were supposed to be the two of them, and Lily drew a circle of rainbow scribbles.

Harry bent down to gather up the papers quickly to shove back into his folder. He picked up the picture last, carefully laying it on top of the other rumpled papers and closed the folder shut. He stood to his full height to see Greengrass chuckling.

“Ah, did your children surprise you with a picture in your work things? Draco was telling me that little Scorpius shoved five pictures into his work briefcase the other week,” Greengrass commented in a light tone. “It’s nice when our children think of us, isn’t it, Auror Potter?”

Harry held the file securely with both hands in front of him. His eyes flickered from Greengrass to Malfoy before finally settling on Sirius. His godfather just stared at him like he had never seen anyone like him before. He looked as though he were afraid to speak.

“Are you alright, Auror Potter?” Greengrass’ voice rang. “Draco, can you check on our very esteemed Auror? I, daresay, the Minister would be quite upset with me if something happened to him.”

“I’m fine,” Harry croaked out hastily as he continued to stare at Sirius.

“Can you identify this man as Sirius Black, Auror Potter?” Greengrass pressed again.

Harry’s tongue peeked out and licked his bottom lip. His gaze snapped back to Greengrass and nodded his head in the positive. The Unspeakable merely smiled in return.

“Excellent. That’s what we presumed, but one can never be too careful. Thank you for coming down, Auror Potter, I appreciate your patience with us today. We are very much in uncharted territory. I’ll contact you directly if I have any more questions or concerns. Please, keep what you saw today private. Have a good rest of your day.”

“Excuse me?” Harry snapped as he felt like his brain began to work once more.

“You’re no longer needed here,” Greengrass repeated. “I believe you told me you had a million things you could be doing in the office instead of being here. I merely needed you to confirm his identity. Nothing more.”

“You just… what? Expect me to leave after showing me my dead godfather?” Harry questioned as his eyes snapped back to his godfather who seemed to have relaxed just slightly at the words.

“ _Harry_?” Sirius rasped as he tilted his head and squinted his eyes as though he had just realized exactly who he was.

Harry’s heart sank slightly. Sirius was so confused before because he did not know if he was Harry or if he was James. Harry threw the man a small, forced smile as he nodded his head to confirm his identity.

“I expected you to help out a fellow department and then leave the rest to us once the task was completed. I have always heard you were extremely professional,” Greengrass commented with raised eyebrows.

“ _Professional_? You want me to be professional right now?” Harry asked with irritation rising in his tone as his attention snapped back to the Unspeakable. “How is this for professional: I’ll overtake jurisdiction on this matter.”

“This is a Department of Mysteries matter. He was retrieved from the Veil in our department,” Greengrass said coldly.

“This is an Auror matter. He disappeared during the Second War and Aurors have jurisdiction over anything having to do with the war,” Harry challenged.

“Ah, you have jurisdiction over any Dark objects or Dark wizards that were involved in the war. He’s merely an innocent civilian.”

“Perhaps, I should contact my good friend, the Minister of Magic. He has the final say over which department has jurisdiction over a matter,” Harry coolly. “You’ll find that the Minister very rarely disagrees with me. We are very good friends. He’s even been known to pop in on family events when he’s not busy.”

Harry very rarely liked to use his name or his connections to people to get what he wanted, but this time was entirely different. He knew Kingsley would not mind in the slightest. Harry supposed he was just lucky that Kingsley was still in office as he had been in office longer than any other Minister of Magic and consistently retained a very high approval rating.

“Auror Potter, we are both highly regarded department heads within the Ministry,” Greengrass started. “You did not get where you are today through threats or throwing around names. I would hate to see you fall from grace by doing so now.”

“In the Ministry bylaws, the Auror Department has the authority to investigate what they deem worthy of investigation with reasonable cause. Sirius Black disappeared during the Second Wizarding World and was presumed dead. Aurors have automatic jurisdiction over anything dealing with either of the wars. That is my reasonable cause. As Head Auror, I am officially taking over this matter. If you would like to object, please, go see the Minister and tell him I said hello,” Harry told him stiffly. “Now, if you would please leave and take the Unspeakables standing guard outside with you. I have no need for them as I will get my Aurors out here to do the job.”

“Auror Potter-”

“Unspeakable Greengrass, you will find that my department trumps your department,” Harry interrupted.

He shifted the file to his left hand as his right hand reached inside his robe pocket to pull out his wand. Silently, he casted a Patronus to send to Ron to tell him to put together a team of select Aurors for a private matter and then meet him at the hospital. The stag galloped to the exterior wall and disappeared through it. He paused for several seconds before he sent another Patronus to ask Ginny to meet him at the hospital.

“Your reputation certainly proceeds you. I will fight you on this, Auror Potter,” Greengrass promised.

“I look forward to it. If somebody isn’t properly mad at me, then I’m not doing my job,” Harry said pleasantly as he swept his arm to the door. “Healer Malfoy, I don’t need your services right now.”

Greengrass shot Harry one last nasty look before storming out of the room. Malfoy eyed him warily before leaving as well. Once they were both gone, Harry casted his own privacy charms around the room as he did not trust Greengrass not to spy on their conversation. Once satisfied, he crossed the room until he stood by his godfather’s bedside. He tossed his file on the bedside table before running a shaky hand through his hair.

“Sirius,” Harry started, his voice suddenly thick with emotion.

“You’re different,” Sirius interrupted as he looked up at Harry like he had never truly seen him before. “What is going on? How are you… older?”

“Fifteen years ago, you fell through the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries while dueling Bellatrix Lestrange. We all assumed you died. Somehow, you didn’t die and your body was in a sort of stasis. Apparently, some Unspeakables pulled you out from the Veil. As you can see, I’m not exactly on good terms with the Head Unspeakable at the moment and he’s rather pissed at me so I don’t know any more than that.”

“Fifteen years? Fifteen years has passed? So, you’re thirty and apparently the head of the Auror Department and have kids?” Sirius asked in disbelief and looked as though his head was spinning.

“What do _you_ remember, Sirius? Because, I remember Bellatrix Stunned you and you fell through the Veil.”

“I remember being Stunned. Then, moments later, I came to with some strangers staring up at me. Everyone was gone. There was no more battle. I thought I was about to be dragged back to Azkaban when they brought me here,” Sirius explained with a furrowed brow. “What’s happened in the last… Merlin, it’s really been fifteen years since I’ve been gone?”

“Voldemort’s dead. We won the war,” Harry said slowly, hoping this bit of information would help ease the blow.

“He’s dead dead? As in gone for good?”

“Yes.”

“What about you? I saw some drawing on the floor and Greengrass made some comment about you having kids.”

“I’m married to Ginny Weasley,” Harry started.

“Remus and I both thought you’d end up with her,” Sirius commented with a grin. “Potters have it bad for redheads.”

“We’ve been married for ten years. We have three kids and my godson lives with us as well,” he continued, his hands finding their way into his pockets.

“Three kids and a godson? Tell me about them,” Sirius asked with a look of pure bewilderment on his face.

“My oldest, James, is six. He’s a… handful. Very hyperactive, can’t sit still, loves to fly, and is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. Then, there’s Al who is almost four. He’s a sweetheart. He’s a lot shyer than James is and a lot quieter. He’s thoughtful and can be quite serious at times. Then, my youngest, Lily, is two. She’s very girly in a way that Ginny doesn’t know how to handle because she was always such a tomboy. She loves flying though as long as she has a fluffy dress and a crown on her head while she does it. Ginny says she has me wrapped around her little finger, and I cave to her every whim.”

“I can’t wait to meet them,” Sirius commented as he seemed to relax slightly. “What about your godson? Who are his parents? What happened to them?”

“Yes, well, I saved him for last since I’m sure you’ll be upset when you hear his story,” Harry spoke sadly as Sirius frowned. “He’s twelve. I was only seventeen when he was born. We were in the middle of the war still and it was bad. Voldemort had taken over the Ministry and Hogwarts. He was throwing Muggleborns in jail for stealing magic. Ron, Hermione, and I were on the run for nearly a year as Voldemort had placed a nice ten thousand Galleon price tag on my head for my capture. The more I evaded, the higher it got. I think by the time the war ended, it was up to two hundred thousand.”

“How…” Sirius trailed off. “How did you survive for so long with that amount of money on you?”

“Hermione. She was very good at keeping us hidden. We got caught due to a stupid mistake on my part once but managed to escape.”

“Is your godson Ron and Hermione’s kid?”

“No, he’s not. They’re both alive and married with two kids of their own. I work with Ron at the Auror Department in fact,” Harry answered and knew he couldn’t put off his godson’s identity much longer. “Teddy is… Remus is Teddy’s father.”

“ _Remus_? Remus has a kid? He… he’s dead too then if you take care of his kid,” he said sullenly, his eyes casting downwards.

“Remus and Tonks got married right before the Ministry fell and got pregnant around that time too. Teddy was only a few weeks old when they died. It was during the final battle of the war – the Battle of Hogwarts. I gained custody of Teddy a few months after their deaths. He was living with Andromeda before then. She… she had a tough time. Her husband was murdered for being a Muggleborn. Her daughter died in the final battle. She wasn’t… well. I helped her and Teddy as much as I could before she asked me to take over full custody. She still sees him all the time and she’s invited to every single holiday and birthday. They have a good relationship. A normal grandmother and grandson relationship. Ginny and I treat Teddy like he’s another one of our sons. The kids love him and don’t hesitate to introduce him as their brother. I think they wouldn’t even know he wasn’t their real brother except James has asked me why he calls us Harry and Ginny and not Mum and Dad. We had to explain it then.”

Harry reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet. He normally carried a Muggle wallet with some Muggle cash and his identifications. He pulled out a wallet sized photo and handed it to Sirius. His godfather accepted it with a shaky hand. Harry leaned forward to gaze at the picture for a few seconds fondly.

It was taken last Christmas on the front porch of Potter House. All five Potters and a single Lupin donned their Weasleys sweaters with their initials embossed on them that were made with care courtesy of Molly Weasley. Harry sat on the top step in his traditional emerald green sweater. A wide grin was plastered across his face as his hair blew wildly in the wind. A tiny girl, just barely two, sat on his lap. She wore a matching dark emerald sweater with a very big, poofy, sparkly skirt. Her red hair was curly around her freckly, pale face. A large, emerald bow was situated on top of her head. To their right was Ginny Weasley who sported a golden sweater and whose hair was pulled back in a side plait. Her arm was around a small three-year-old Albus in a red sweater with his wild black hair and bright emerald eyes. He grinned as he leaned into his mother’s side. On the other side of Harry was a lanky eleven-year-old Teddy in a navy-blue sweater. He had been sporting green hair for the holiday. His arm was around a five-year-old James in an apricot sweater who stood beside his godbrother. James’ arm was slung over Teddy’s shoulders. He had Ginny’s brown eyes and Harry’s black hair – except James’ hair laid flatly on his head naturally which was a feat that Harry nor Albus could ever achieve. He was, unfortunately for him, the only child of his who had inherited his father’s terrible eyesight. Although, Harry suspected that Lily might be falling ill to the curse of bad eyesight as Ginny had made her an appointment at St. Mungo’s the following week to get her eyes checked due to the small child turning her head to the side when she looked at things.

Sirius fingered the picture with a look of pure wonderment on his face. Harry knew he was probably wondering where the time went, how his fifteen-year-old godson had grown up to be a married man with four kids and impressive job. Sometimes, Harry wondered the same damn thing. He had never even considered having kids when he was a teenager. He, honestly, didn’t think he’d live long enough to get married and have kids. Merlin, was he glad he did. Him and Ginny were pumping out kids every two years and Harry had the itch to add a fifth child but Ginny was more hesitate to the idea. She was more than content with their current family size of six.

There was a knock on the door that drew Harry out of his reverie. He went to the door, not bothering to get his picture back from Sirius, and opened it to reveal his very nervous looking wife. She sighed in relief as she flung her arms around his midsection. Harry wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was nearly a foot shorter than him and fit nicely against his chest.

“You utter prat! I thought you got hurt at work!”

Ginny lingered in his arms for a few moments, her face buried into his chest, before she pulled away and hit him hard in the bicep. Harry scowled slightly as he rubbed his arm where she clocked him.

“When you say _meet me at the hospital, something’s happened_ you should really add that you’re fine! I was in a meeting when I saw your stag outside the conference room window staring at me. I about had a heart attack because you never send me a Patronus while I’m at work unless it’s something serious! Then, I get here and they tell me I can find you in the spell damage ward!”

“First of all, ow. Second of all, it’s nice to see you too. Third of all, have I told you I love you today?”

“Nice try, Potter. Your charms are not going to work in your favor right now,” she said with a smirk. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay? Is it Teddy? I know he was spending the day shopping with Andromeda.”

“Teddy’s fine. All the kids are fine. I’m fine.”

“Is it Ron?” Ginny pushed.

“Just, come in, alright?” Harry said as he raked a hand through his hair and stepped aside.

He watched Ginny carefully as she eyed him suspiciously before taking a step into the hospital room. Harry closed the door behind her as she stared at Sirius in the hospital bed. He looked up at her sheepishly. Then, in a flash, Ginny was across the room and flung her arms around the man. Sirius looked mildly shocked and uncomfortable, but he patted her gently on her back a few times with the picture still clenched in his hand.

“What? How?” Ginny questioned as she pulled away as her eyes landed on the picture. “Harry told you about the kids? Merlin, Sirius, they’re a handful and amazingly loud. You’ll love it but hate it at the same time. Did he also tell you he wanted a fifth? He said we won’t even notice another one so we might as well add one. I called him mental and thought about checking him into a psychiatric ward to get his head examined.”

“Let him breath, Gin,” Harry said with a chuckle as he stepped up beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, what happened?” she directed her question to Harry when Sirius seemed to be stunned into silence.

“The Unspeakables were doing some sort of experiment on the Veil in the Death Chamber and out popped Sirius not having aged a day. I don’t know much else because I kind of clashed with the Head Unspeakable and kicked him out.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Ginny asked with a shake of the head. “When can he get out of here?”

“I don’t know. They had Malfoy as his Healer,” Harry commented as Ginny wrinkled her nose before turning her attention to Sirius.

“You know you’re going to come home with us, right? We’ll bunk James and Al together for a while and you can take one of their rooms.”

“I know Greengrass said something about how I was an innocent civilian…” Sirius trailed off.

“Your name has been cleared. After the war, I made sure of it. I just thought it was the right thing to do,” Harry explained. “There were quite a few innocent people who got their names cleared after it was all said and done.”

“Thanks,” Sirius said softly. “I… are you sure it’s okay to stay with you? I mean, you’re adults with kids and-”

“Nonsense,” Ginny said quickly. “Where else are you going to go? Grimmauld Place? Over my dead body, Sirius Black. You’re our family. You belong with us. The boys will be fine together until we think of a more permanent solution.”

“Sure,” Sirius replied as he looked down at the picture in his hand again.

“Are you okay, Sirius?” questioned Harry. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“I…” Sirius trailed off as he looked up at Harry with a lost look on his face. “I always seem to lose time. First, it’s twelve years in Azkaban and now fifteen years behind a-a, what did you call it? A Veil of Death?”

“The war is over with,” Harry spoke softly as his insides twisted at his godfather’s comments. “No more losing time, alright?”

Sirius merely just nodded his head with a frown etched in every corner of his face. He looked broken. Harry had no idea what to say or do to help his godfather. He couldn’t even fathom losing decades of his life multiple times. Both times, things were so different that it was hard to even recognize where he was.

There was another knock on the door before it opened slowly. Harry whipped around to see Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway. He kept his face expressionless as he strolled into the hospital room, closing the door softly behind him.

“Are you going to let me check on my patient or are you going to pitch a fit to have him reassigned?” Malfoy asked coolly.

“Depends on if you’re going to keep patient confidentially or go blabbering to your wife’s grandfather about him,” Harry snapped back.

“Mine and Astoria’s relationship with Gareth is strictly a familial obligation,” Malfoy spoke stiffly. “I believe you recall our conversation after the war?”

Harry nodded briefly. He remembered sitting down with Draco and Narcissa Malfoy. He remembered thanking them both for saving his life, talked about how they had changed and saw how a world with the likes of Voldemort or anyone like him was disastrous. How they were forced to follow him because of Lucius’ foolish actions and how Voldemort had controlled them with a healthy dose of fear. Harry believed every single word they spoke as Draco Malfoy did not give his identity away after being captured by Snatchers and Narcissa Malfoy had lied to Voldemort about him being dead after being hit with the Killing Curse.

“I do,” Harry spoke softly.

“I would not risk my job for someone who is still stuck in their old ways and treats people unfavorably if they do not bend to his every wish. He will come after you, Potter, and he will not rest until he deems you’ve been punished enough for your insolence.”

“I’d like to see him try,” Harry said dryly. “When can Sirius get out of here?”

Ginny shifted uncomfortably next to him but didn’t say anything. Harry knew she did not understand why he was always willing to give Malfoy a second chance or how he was able to speak civilly with the man when they would see each other. She was not there when Malfoy refused to confirm his identity in front of his deranged aunt and parents. Harry liked to believe that it was a big part of the reason Narcissa didn’t give him up as well. He truly believed that Malfoy was a changed man, a better man, a man who was not ruled by blood hatred any longer.

“He seems fine. I would like to keep him overnight for observation to ensure something isn’t going to crop up unexpectedly seeing as he’s the first case of this happening,” Malfoy said as he took a step towards Sirius and drew his wand.

“Like what?” questioned Harry as Malfoy ran a wand over a very tense Sirius.

“I haven’t the faintest idea, Potter. I just want to do my due diligence. Who knows what the consequences are of being undead in the realm of the dead.”

“He had to have been dead though,” Harry said as he thought suddenly about seeing a ghostly Sirius in the forest with his parents and Remus when he had the Resurrection Stone. No one could come back from the dead so how was Sirius actually here? A sinking feeling settled into his chest and started eating away at him. It was a thought he did not hold before, too stunned to think clearly when he originally saw his godfather.

“I can assure you, I don’t believe he was dead at all,” Malfoy replied.

“No, he had to have been dead. He wasn’t alive the whole time.”

“He was in a sort of stasis,” Malfoy said slowly as though he thought Harry was a toddler who he was explaining something serious to.

“No, he had to have been dead,” Harry replied in annoyance.

“Why are you fighting about this with me?”

“Because, I _know_ he was dead.”

“If this has anything to do with you feeling guilty that he was alive all these years and you-”

“It’s _not_ about that,” snapped Harry as anger was now rising.

“Harry?” questioned Ginny as she reached out a hand to touch his bicep.

“I… Ginny, the forest that night I…” _died_ he finished silently.

Ginny looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds before a look of realization crossed her face. She leaned into him, her hand reaching to grasp his into hers. She looked serious for a few seconds as though clearly thinking of the circumstance.

“What if it wasn’t actually the dead, Harry,” Ginny spoke softly. “What if it wasn’t really them but just your projections of them? Or, what if, since Sirius was technically in the afterlife but not dead, he was able to appear?”

“What are you talking about?” inquired Malfoy.

Sirius peered at him curiously as well, his brows furrowed deeply, lines etched like large crevices on his forehead. Harry swallowed.

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter,” Harry said with a sigh.

He glanced sideways at Ginny and silently told her they’d talk about it later. Satisfied that Sirius was still stable, Malfoy excused himself to check on other patients and said he’d be back before shift change. Harry, trying to wrap his brain around the situation and think logically instead of emotionally, asked Sirius if he was well enough to change into Padfoot. His godfather slipped easily from dog to man. The last of Harry’s tension seeped from his shoulders.

Harry met with a team of Aurors that Ron had sent to the hospital and stationed them outside of Sirius’ room. They were given very clear instructions to let no one in except for his assigned Healer and the Potter family.

The rest of the day was spent with Harry filling Sirius in on the war, about the deaths, the Horcruxes, the final battle. He conveniently left out the story about the Resurrection Stone, about how he walked to his death willingly, how he himself had been a Horcrux. He thought some of it was best to be discussed later. Before they knew it, Malfoy came in to check on his patient one final time and announce visiting hours were over with. Harry promised to be back in the morning to take him home. Ginny stepped forward, giving the man a hug and a kiss on the cheek before pulling back. Harry took a step forward, bending down, and embracing his godfather for the first time since their brief side hug after Christmas fifteen years ago.

After gathering the children from the Burrow and waiting for Andromeda to drop off Teddy, the family ate dinner. The children talked over each other excitedly to talk about their day. Ginny listened warmly as she interrupted with several questions and clarifications. She even was in her right mind to ask them to settle down and eat their vegetables. Harry sat next to her, pushing around a majority of his food on his plate and taking very few bites.

After dinner, Harry sat at the head of the table, Lily snuggled back against his chest, as the boys and Ginny remained in their spots at the table. Albus squatted in his chair in excitement while James tried to poke Teddy in the ear. Teddy, annoyed, sent protests Ginny’s way.

“Quiet!” Harry boomed and everyone stilled.

Harry was normally the calmer parent. If he raised his voice, the children knew that they were in deep trouble. Ginny was more of the disciplinarian and approached situations with a lot of yelling, finger wagging, and hands on her hips akin to Molly Weasley. In fact, the kids were not phased in the slightest when Ginny got worked up. They froze in fear, however, whenever Harry got worked up.

“We are having a family meeting,” Ginny spoke calmly as the boys sat very still. “Do you know what a family meeting is?”

“Sitting at the table and talking?” supplied James.

“What’s wrong?” frowned Teddy.

“A family meeting means you lot are going to sit nicely in your chairs, listen to what your father and I have to say, and then you will get the opportunity to ask questions. Is that understood?”

All three boys nodded their heads in agreement. Lily, still on her father’s lap, leaned forward and scribbled on a coloring book that had been placed in front of her. Harry knew Lily was too young to understand what they were going to say or be able to implement what they expected of the children. Even Albus teetered on being able to fully understand at the age of nearly four. Harry expected James and Teddy to comprehend and lead the example of what was expected of them in the upcoming weeks.

“We are going to have a house guest tomorrow,” Harry explained calmly. “He’s going to stay with us awhile. He’s not used to, err, all the noise you lot bring.”

“Who is he?” questioned Teddy.

“My godfather, Sirius Black.”

“I thought he was dead…” Teddy said as he narrowed his eyes, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“We thought he was,” replied Ginny. “It’s very complicated what happened.”

“How can someone be dead but not be dead?” inquired James.

“He wasn’t actually dead, James. He never was. He was… well, I don’t exactly know what he was,” explained Ginny as her eyes glanced over at her husband for help.

“He was missing, I suppose,” Harry supplied.

Teddy sat very still next to Harry. His vibrant blue hair had turned a dull black. He was white in the face, his eyes darting between his two guardians with a question on the tip of his tongue that he looked too nervous or too scared to ask.

“Does this mean that maybe my…” Teddy faltered.

Harry felt his heart break in two at the innocent question. He held a breath in as he felt like he was slowly suffocating at how to answer that question truthfully yet not totally destroy the boy.

“Oh, Teddy, honey,” Ginny started as she stood up and walked around the table to the boy. “I’m sorry but your parents can’t come back.”

Teddy bowed his head as Ginny tugged him out of his chair and pulled him close to her chest. Her hand weaved through his dark hair. Harry couldn’t see his face but he heard a strangled sob. Ginny whispered in his ear so only he could hear.

“What’s going on?” James asked in confusion.

“It’s nothing,” Harry replied. “You are to be on your best behavior while Sirius stays here. That means keep the fighting to a minimum, no blowing up things, no jumping on him, give him some space, and be polite.”

“So, you’re saying Teddy and I can’t set off the Dungbombs at Friday night dinner this week?” James asked with a frown.

“We probably will not be going to Friday night dinner this week,” Harry commented.

“What in Merlin’s name even makes you think setting off Dungbombs at Friday night dinner is acceptable in the first place?” Ginny asked in a shocked tone as she pulled away from Teddy who was still frowning.

“Why?” Al whined. “I wanna go to grandmum’s and granddad’s!”

“Where was he if he wasn’t dead?” Teddy inquired as he took his spot back in his seat and Ginny stood beside him with an arm around the back of his chair.

“Uh…” Harry stilled.

He took off his glasses and started to rub the lenses with the hem of his shirt. It was often a move to stall when he collected his thoughts. How could he explain the Veil of Death to his children?

“He was trapped,” Ginny spoke up softly. “We just didn’t know he was trapped. It’s very complicated to explain.”

“He knew my dad?” inquired Teddy.

“They were best friends,” Harry replied as he placed his glasses back on his face.

“Tomorrow, we are going to move Al into James’ room. You guys will be sharing for a while,” Ginny explained.

“YES!” Al cried as he began bouncing in his chair again.

“NO!” James cried. “Can’t I stay with Teddy?”

“No!” Teddy interrupted as he turned his attention to his godfather. “I need to do homework and stuff. He can’t room with me! Harry!”

“We’ve already decided James and Al are going to be sharing,” Harry said flatly. “James, you and Al are closer in age. You two will be together.”

“That’s not fair!” James groaned. “I’m a big kid! I go to school too!”

“You go to a Muggle primary school,” Teddy said dryly, clearly unimpressed. “I go to _Hogwarts_.”

“Boys, enough,” Ginny said sternly.

“Time for bed,” Harry commented. “Ginny, take Lily. Teddy, go get ready. Al and James, come with me.”

Ginny reached down and picked up the half asleep two-year-old into her arms. The three boys grumbled their protests as they followed their father up the stairs. Harry wrestled Al into his pajamas as James dressed himself. They then met Teddy in the bathroom for a tooth brushing session before the younger boys kissed and hugged their godbrother goodnight. Harry led the younger boys into James’ room for a story and then he carried a half-asleep Al to his own bed. He ambled into Teddy’s room, bade him goodnight with a kiss on his head, and set the lights on a thirty-minute timer to allow the boy some reading time before he had to go to sleep.

Harry leaned back into the pillows of his own bed before taking off his glasses and sitting them on the bedside table. The palms of his hands scrubbed his eyes when he heard the bedroom door open. Ginny strolled past him to the on suite. He heard her rustling around for a good ten minutes before she emerged in an old Gryffindor Quidditch shirt that had once belonged to Harry. It was nearly see through with a hole under the left armpit. For some reason, she insisted on wearing her husband’s old shirts to bed. The rattier the better in her opinion.

She glided into bed as she inched close to him until her body was pressed up against his side. Her feet felt like ice cubes as they teased his calf while her nose buried into his chest, her arm slung across his stomach. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her tight against his side.

“How are you doing?” she murmured against him as she turned her head so that her cheek rested comfortably on his bare chest.

“I’m fine,” he said as he stared at the blurry outline of their large family canvas picture across the room.

“Harry,” she said slowly as she lifted her head to look at him. “Anybody who knows you knows that you’re not fine right now. Your very dead godfather just showed up miraculously alive and hasn’t aged a day. _Nobody_ would be fine.”

Harry squinted his eyes as he stared at the freckles splashed across her nose and cheeks. They were scattered around in a haphazard manner and there looked to be more of the little flecks than the last time he had really looked at them.

“I’m not sure how to feel,” he said honestly.

He was through the moon that he had his godfather back. He had missed Sirius something awful over the years. The prospect of finally having the relationship he craved with Sirius when he was on the run was now very tangible. His kids would have a chance to get to know him. Teddy would be able to hear all the stories he wanted about his father. Except, something about it didn’t sit well with him. What were the Unspeakables doing with the Veil of Death? How exactly had they pulled Sirius out? Why hadn’t he aged? Was he really medically alright?

“Well, something exciting hasn’t happened to you in a while so I guess this is your next adventure, isn’t it?” Ginny said in a jovial tone. “It’s been smuggling of Dark objects and illegal potions with the occasional mad wizard for you at work. All very boring compared to someone back from the dead.”

Harry chuckled as he reached out and brushed a lock of hair behind Ginny’s ear. He was still squinting at her features and half wished he hadn’t taken his glasses off so prematurely into the night.

“More like a lot of paper work and damage control,” Harry said dryly.

“I was thinking that tomorrow I’ll see if we can get our money back for the holiday we have planned next month to Greece.”

Harry sighed. He had totally forgot about their yearly summer family holiday. They had always tried to go on a Potter family holiday and had rarely missed one in the past ten years since they started the tradition. They had missed one the year Albus was born as his birthday was in late June. They had missed another the year after Lily was born as Harry had been roped into a rather large smuggling ring operation that had constantly taken him out of the country for the majority of the summer. Ginny had taken the kids with her parents for the week to their holiday in the Netherlands without him as it was too late to cancel the vacation and get their money back.

“Don’t cancel yet,” Harry told her. “Maybe Sirius would join us or maybe he’d appreciate some time alone after he sees how loud this house is. The kids look forward to the trip every year. What week are we going again?”

“Your birthday week. I hope you’ve already put your time off request in at work,” Ginny supplied. “We also have Al’s birthday party next weekend too, by the way.”

“I have already submitted it and it was cleared. Ron’s going to act as head that week so I’ll be working overtime when I get back because we both know Ron won’t keep up with the paperwork. I just couldn’t remember exactly what week it was,” Harry admitted. “The party is at the house though, right?”

“Yes, but we have, Merlin, Harry, close to a hundred people coming to the house. Do you think Sirius will be up to seeing that many people?”

Harry sighed and slammed his head back into his pillow. Ginny’s fingers trailed along his jaw idly. He shivered under her touch.

“I mean, he’ll have to be. We can’t cancel Al’s party,” Harry said as he stared at the fuzzy features of his wife’s face. “He can always get away in the house if it’s too much. Who all is coming that it’s a hundred people?”

“Our birthday parties are _always_ around a hundred people. All of the Weasleys are coming. Andromeda. Luna. Neville. A bunch of the old D.A. members. Some of my friends from the paper and Gwen from the Harpies. Kingsley. McGonagall. Hagrid. I mean, Harry, honestly, the list goes on.”

Harry nodded. He supposed their parties were always huge affairs. Ginny had a problem when it came to guest lists. She never wanted to exclude anyone and she loved massive gatherings as she grew up in such a huge family. Really, they didn’t throw a lot of parties at their home anyways, so it didn’t matter to Harry in the least. They threw massive parties for all four kids’ birthdays and an even larger Christmas party every year. Molly Weasley still threw Harry and Ginny small family birthday dinners at the Burrow. Five massive parties a year didn’t seem that outrageous. Harry would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the parties as well.

“For my birthday, we could potentially be in Greece?” Harry inquired.

“Yes, which, by the way, don’t mention that in front of my mother. She was rather upset we picked that time to go on holiday and said the weekend after we get back, she’s throwing us a huge joint birthday dinner. Don’t ask me who she is even intending on inviting, but apparently it’s going to be big.”

“What else is going on this summer?” asked Harry.

“Nothing as far as I know. Just shopping with Teddy for school in Diagon Alley. Then, I want to go into Muggle London to school shop for the boys another day. Al starts nursery school this year,” Ginny leaned forward and kissed his chin. “Can you take two half days off so we can do the school shopping as a family? Preferably, half days on two back to back Fridays to extend our weekend?”

“I can do one half day on a Friday and one we will have to do on a weekend,” Harry compromised. “Especially if we do end up going on holiday, I’ll be swamped at work come August.”

“I will threaten Ron to keep you up to date and not let things fall behind so you’re not swamped,” Ginny commented as she wiggled her eyebrows. “It’s been awhile since he’s seen my Bat-Bogey Hex.”

Harry roared with laughter as he reached out to place his hands on her cheeks. He pulled her face close to his gently and kissed her squarely on the lips. She adjusted herself so more of her body was on top of him to return the kiss. She pulled away, their noses and foreheads touching.

“I’m assuming you’re taking tomorrow off if we’re going to pick up Sirius from the hospital.”

“No, I have to run into work in the morning first. I want to start an investigation on what exactly the Unspeakables were doing with the Veil. I think I’ll need permission from Kingsley to open it and get jurisdiction over it,” Harry said. “Then, I’ll go grab Sirius myself. Do you want to stay home with the kids?”

“That’s fine. Have him home by lunch. I’ll have everything ready,” Ginny agreed as she pulled away and laid down next to him, her head invading his pillow. “I’ll have another stern talk with the boys as well. They’ll be perfect angels tomorrow or else.”

“Or else what?” inquired Harry with a grin, slightly amused.

“How should I know? Parenting is a bunch of empty threats, Potter, you should know that by now,” Ginny replied as she kissed his shoulder which caused Harry to chuckle once more.

“I love you, Gins,” he spoke quietly as he nestled his face into her hair.

“I love you too, Harry,” she replied in an equally low voice. “It’ll all work out and we will get through this. Everything with Sirius, the investigation, the kids, everything. We always come out stronger in the end.”

“I love your optimism.”

“Well, one of us has to be optimistic in this relationship. We all know that you aren’t going to see the glass half full anytime soon, Mister Doom and Gloom.”

“I’m pragmatic,” Harry interrupted with his grin widening.

“You’re pessimistic and infuriating,” Ginny replied with a teasing tone.

“You want infuriating? I can be infuriating,” he spoke happily as he turned in bed to face her. “His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad.”

“Harry!”

Ginny slapped his shoulder, hard, causing him to roll onto his back. There was a wide grin plastered across her face that she tried to cover up but failed miserably. Harry laughed loudly he squinted up at her.

“His hair is as dark as a blackboard,” he continued as he held his hands out in front of his body to defend himself. “He’s so divine, I wish he were mine.”

“You arse, if you’re going to say it, say it right!”

She attempted to sling him on the shoulder again but Harry caught her wrist in his hand easily. She struggled in his grasp, strangled sniggers attempting to escape her rather stern-looking lips.

“Did I get it wrong?” Harry asked in confusion. “What part?”

“I wish he was mine, he’s really divine. The hero who conquered the Dark Lord,” Ginny supplied as a wide smile spread across her face. “It’s rather clever for an eleven-year-old.”

“Twenty-nine-year-old me appreciates it a lot better than my twelve-year-old self,” Harry supplied as he pulled her hand down that he was still clenching and kissed the palm of her hand. “I bet my thirty-year-old self will appreciate it even more next month.”

“Maybe I’ll hire a little dwarf in a pink tutu to come sing it to you while I present you your cake instead of us singing happy birthday,” Ginny commented slyly.

“Merlin, that would be fantastic. Can you pull that off?” Harry grinned.

“Oh, yes, I’ll make reservations at a nice restaurant and tip off the press so they can take pictures. It’ll be marvelous.”

“No, no, no press,” Harry said as he pushed her gently to her side of the bed. “The dwarf in the tutu reciting your eloquent poetry is quite enough. As for my gift this year, I’ll take a brand new poem by you. You haven’t written me one since we were kids.”

“What rhymes with Harry Potter, the Vanquisher?”

“Oh, Merlin, I forgot they called me that after the war for a while. That was bloody awful.”

“It was one of your more macho titles,” Ginny supplied with a giggle.

“My personal favorite was when I was called Harry Potter, the Husband of Star Chaser Ginny Potter.”

“Oh, during that one game! When the commentator drew attention to you in the stands when you started screaming when I nearly got knocked off my broom and your delicate tones were demanding a penalty shot?”

“He was playing bloody dirty! He should have been booted from the game. That hit was illegal!” Harry defended himself. “I was going to go to the ref when Ron stopped me and told me I was going a bit overboard.”

“I rather miss when you and Teddy would come to the games all decked out in your Harpies gear with war paint under your faces.”

“I still have my Potter jersey in the closet. I can wear it for old times and paint my face again.”

“For my birthday,” she told him as she intertwined her hand with his. “Walk into our birthday dinner at the Burrow dressed like that.”

“That could be arranged. You know I’ll have to find jerseys for all the kids. Al and Lily could probably fit into some of Teddy’s old ones. Maybe I’ll see if I can get ones made for Teddy and James.”

“James is small enough that he may be able to fit in Teddy’s one from the year I retired. I can see if I can shrink one of your old ones for Teddy.”

“You know I’m going to organize a pickup game with your brothers now for that day too. Make them get out all their old jerseys,” Harry told her. “Who would play? We need fourteen.”

“You, me, Bill, Charlie, Ron, George, Angelina…” Ginny trailed off as she counted on her fingers. “We got one full team at least.”

“We can extend the guest list if need be,” Harry said in a slightly serious tone as he turned his head to look at her fully.

Harry brought Ginny’s hand up to his lips and gave her knuckles a soft kiss. She sighed in contentment as she snuggled deeper into the bed.

“Goodnight,” he told her has her fingers slipped away from his.

“Goodnight. Try to relax a bit about everything, alright?”

“I’ll try to.”

Harry sank down under the covers and turned to his side, his back facing Ginny. He closed his eyes and couldn’t help but see his godfather being Stunned and falling backwards towards the Veil. It had been some time since he thought of that night. He heard Ginny’s breathing even out next to him as he opened his eyes and stared at the darkness. His mind flickered back to Greengrass and what exactly his department was doing. Part of him feared that Sirius was only the beginning.


	2. Home

“ **Cheating Death”**

**“Chapter Two: Home”**

Harry Potter made his way through the Auror Department looking for his best mate and second in command, Ron Weasley. It was early in the morning, just before eight o’clock, as Harry shoved open the door to Ron’s office door. The desk was empty which shouldn’t be that big of a surprise but Harry couldn’t help but feel the tinges of annoyance lace through him. He sighed as he entered the room and sank down behind his best mate’s desk.

He wanted reinforcement before he went to talk to Kingsley about opening up an investigation against the Department of Mysteries. Quite honestly, he also wanted to make sure he wasn’t crazy to think there was foul play involved. His instincts screamed at him that there was something amiss. Hermione had always told him to trust his instincts because he had an uncanny ability to sense when something was amiss. It was a sentiment he had taken to heart during his years as an Auror. It was probably what got him the position of department head at twenty-seven.

Harry’s eyes roamed along the miss-matched picture frames along the desk. There was a wedding photo of Ron and Hermione with Harry and Ginny on either side of them as their best man and matron of honor. They smiled in the photo, their arms slung around each other’s shoulders. Another picture of Rosie and Hugo sat beside it. Rosie was four with her arms wrapped tightly around a two-year-old Hugo in a loving pose on the couch. Rose looked so much like Ron – tall for her age, all arms and legs, freckles everywhere, and a bush of curly red hair. Hugo, on the other hand, was small for his age with brown hair that glowed red in the light, little buck teeth, and big brown eyes. Another picture of every single Weasley, Potter, and Lupin squished together was in another frame. Some of the adults were pushing one another, the small kids bouncing on the balls of their feet, Mrs. Weasley looked like she was yelling. It was a sea of red, black, and blonde hair. Teddy had donned the traditional Weasley red hair for the occasion and he looked suspiciously like a younger Ron. Harry, for the life of him, couldn’t remember why as Teddy either sported blue hair or black hair to match his godfather.

Leaning the chair back slightly, he kicked his legs up onto the desk and folded his hands in his lap. He lolled his head back on the plush leather and closed his eyes. Harry felt that he would die if Ron ever showed up to work on time let alone early. He didn’t know what possessed him to think that the day he actually needed him would be any different. Harry didn’t know how long he sat there, waiting impatiently until he heard the door bang open.

“Oi, what are you doing?”

Harry opened his eyes and looked at the door. His best mate stood in the doorway, hair disheveled, and his briefcase dangled from his fingertips. He crossed the room, slamming the bag onto his desk with a sour look on his face. 

“You didn’t come to the hospital yesterday,” Harry commented.

“You said to send a team so I sent a team. I didn’t think you actually needed me,” Ron replied as he snapped his fingers and indicated for Harry to get out of his chair.

“I thought you’d come with the team since I said it was a personal matter. Weren’t you the least bit curious?”

“Out, Harry, and no, I wasn’t. I had other stuff on my mind.”

Harry unfolded himself from the seat, the front legs banging slightly on the floor, as he stood up. Dramatically, he extended his arms towards the chair as Ron plopped down low into the leather. His legs spread wide, his gangly arms hanging off the armrests with his fingertips grazing the floor. Harry didn’t need to ask to know Ron was having a bad day. He wagered that the Ron and Hermione were fighting again. They always seemed to have the smallest squabbles. A majority of the fights were about the most ridiculous things.

Harry wondered sometimes if it was normal to fight so much. He didn’t really have a frame of reference. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always fought in the most passive aggressive way possible. His Aunt Petunia had the uncanny ability to make an insult sound like a compliment. It was all clipped tones and snide remarks when they fought. Ginny and him rarely fought – especially not huge yelling battles. They had their disagreements, certainly, and Ginny could get cold when they weren’t getting along and he was more than happy to give her the silent treatment when she became icy, but they didn’t have blowouts like Ron and Hermione. Harry felt like it was nearly once every other week he was hearing about their newest argument.

“What’s up with you?” questioned Harry as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hermione is bonkers. We had a row yesterday that’s carried into today,” Ron commented in an exasperated tone. “I don’t understand women.”

“You’ve known Hermione for nineteen years,” Harry started. “How do you not understand her yet? I’m not even married to her and I know what to avoid so I don’t set her off.”

“Why do you assume it’s something I did?”

“Because, it’s always something you did,” Harry said with a sigh. “Quick, tell me your issue because I have an issue I need you to help me with.”

“Wait, are you telling me that you and Ginny are finally fighting about something? Do I get to be the relationship advice giver for once? Forget my problems! I have them every other week. Lay it on me, Harry!”

Ron clapped his hands together in a rather enthusiastic manner with a wide grin spreading across his features. He straightened up in his chair, his melancholy over his fight with Hermione was long forgotten. Harry didn’t know whether he should be offended by his giddiness or pleased he was so willing to help.

“It’s not a Ginny problem,” Harry replied with a frown. “It’s a Gareth Greengrass and a Department of Mysteries problem.”

“Oh, it’s about work then? That’s less exciting. Can we talk about my problem then?” Ron’s face fell.

“No, you already passed the torch to me. It’s an exciting work problem,” Harry commented.

“I highly doubt that but continue.”

“Did you see how Greengrass came to my office yesterday afternoon and I left with him?” inquired Harry as Ron nodded in the positive. “He took me to St. Mungo’s to identity someone they pulled out of the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries.”

“Who?” Ron asked carefully.

“Sirius.”

Ron frowned as he ran a hand over his warily face. He lost some color in his face at the name, his mouth twisting into a frown. He stared at Harry as though trying to gauge his feelings about the whole situation. That or he was remembering Hermione’s lessons on being tactful. Harry couldn’t decide which one.

“It’s Sirius. One hundred percent. He transformed into Padfoot. You can’t fake an Animagus form,” Harry confirmed. “He’s still thirty-six. Looks the exact same as the last time we saw him. He remembers being Stunned, falling through the Veil, and then waking up a second later. It’s like no time has passed for him at all.”

“What’s the problem then? I’m failing to see the issue.”

“What were Greengrass and his Unspeakables doing with the Veil that they pulled Sirius out? Were they trying to get someone else but got Sirius instead?”

“You want to open an investigation against the Department of Mysteries and Gareth Greengrass?” Ron questioned as he let out a low whistle. “You really want to go up against Greengrass? Aren’t you concerned about the consequences with Sirius if you get involved?”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh, let’s see, Greengrass could say there was some mistake and order needs to be restored and they could sentence Sirius back through the Veil?”

“Over my dead body would they push Sirius back through the Veil,” Harry said viciously.

“I’m just saying that you just got Sirius back. Do you want to risk something crazy happening?”

“What if they attempt to pull someone else out from the Veil?” questioned Harry. “What if they’re attempting to open a door to the other side and bring back Death Eaters or, worse, Voldemort back to life?”

“Do you honestly think that Greengrass is attempting to bring You-Know-You back from the dead? The dead can’t come back, Harry. They probably only got Sirius out because he wasn’t dead when he fell through the Veil. He was probably in some weird limbo.”

“I don’t know what exactly Greengrass was or wasn’t doing. All I know is I think we should open an investigation into it. I want you to go see Kingsley with me. Since it’s an investigation on a fellow department, I need his authorization to open the case. Seeing as you’re Deputy Head, I’d like your support.”

“Bloody hell, mate, you know I’ll always support you even if I don’t necessarily agree with you. Which, by the way, Harry, I’m not sure opening up an investigation on the Department of Mysteries is the smartest thing in the world, but you know I’ll stand beside you no matter what. Maybe we should run it by Hermione first.”

“Aren’t you two fighting?” Harry asked jokingly.

“I think we could put our fight aside for fifteen minutes. We are adults now, after all.”

Harry and Ron marched their way side by side to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hermione had been promoted recently to the Legislation Liaison to the department. Her office was stuffed away in the corner. Harry knocked three times before he heard her brisk, _“Enter!”_ ring from beyond the wood. Ron gulped and shot his best mate a weary look before Harry opened the door.

Hermione looked up, her bushy hair pulled back in the messiest bun Harry had ever seen. Strands of crimped hair stood out in all directions. She surveyed the two, her new reading glasses sliding down her nose. Her gaze was piercing as she looked from Ron to Harry with a deep frown.

“I don’t have time for this right now, Ronald,” she breathed as she gripped her quill in her hand.

“Oh, trust me, you’ll want involved in this,” Ron said with a sheepish smirk as the two walked into the office and shut the door.

Harry pulled out his wand to cast a Silencing Charm before collapsing in a chair across from Hermione. Ron followed suit. Hermione sat down her quill as she perked up in her seat. It wasn’t often that Harry and Ron visited Hermione at the Ministry. There were only a handful of cases where her expertise was needed. Outside of eating lunch occasionally together in the café, they normally never saw much of each other at work unless they sought each other out.

“What’s wrong?” her voice was suddenly laced with concern.

“Harry wants to open an investigation against Gareth Greengrass,” Ron said cheekily. “He seems to think he doesn’t have enough enemies.”

“Greengrass?” Hermione breathed, her brow furrowing. “You want to take on the Department of Mysteries? Why?”

Harry launched into the story about Sirius, his encounter with Greengrass the day before, his fears of what exactly they could be doing. Hermione listened with rapt fascination and made a strangled noise in her throat when she heard Sirius’ name. She took off the reading glasses and sat them gently on the desk, her lips drawn into a thin line.

“Well, obviously, it doesn’t sound good whatever they did,” Hermione huffed. “I’ve _heard_ that it’s supposed to be studied but not tampered with. The fact that they were tampering with it enough to pull someone out from it is certainly concerning.”

“How do you know it’s only supposed to be studied and not tampered with?” questioned Harry.

“Well, you know Cormac McLaggen is an Unspeakable and I ran into him one day,” Hermione said in a bristled tone. “We got to talking and he was quite loose lipped and-”

“How did McLaggen become an Unspeakable?” asked Harry in disgust.

“You were _talking_ with McLaggen?” Ron asked at the same time in an outraged tone. “You never _told_ me!”

“We just had lunch together one day-” Hermione said in a hurry.

“You had _lunch_ with him?” Ron questioned with his jaw slacked open.

“Ron, shut it,” Harry hissed. “How the ruddy hell did an imbecile like McLaggen become an Unspeakable? They’re highly vetted.”

“He comes from a powerful family, Harry. While he’s an idiot, he’s not a _bad_ person… per say. Sleezy, yes, but not an inherently bad person,” commented Hermione.

“When was this?” questioned Ron.

“It was a while ago. I think I was pregnant with Hugo.”

“So, McLaggen works in the Death Chamber?” questioned Harry.

“Well, that’s the interesting thing. He says that each Unspeakable has a specialty but they all spend time in the Death Chamber,” Hermione continued. “Apparently, they want to get various people’s experiences when they’re near the Veil – what they hear and the urges they have near it. He never talked about ever touching or experimenting with the Veil though.”

“What did McLaggen experience?” inquired Harry as Ron glowered next to him.

“Nothing,” Hermione commented, “though that’s not surprising is it? He has the compassion of a flubberworm.”

“I remember hearing voices coming from the Veil. I had a very strong urge to get close to it,” Harry admitted.

“I remember,” Hermione said as she surveyed her friend carefully. “Experimenting on a gateway to the other side doesn’t sound good, Harry.”

“So, you agree, an investigation should be opened?”

“Why open an investigation when Hermione can just have lunch again with McLaggen and have him spill all the secrets?” Ron asked bitterly as Hermione rolled her eyes.

Harry looked down at the watch on his wrist. He still had the even more battered watch that once belonged to Fabian Prewett. The morning was rapidly disappearing and he didn’t want to keep Sirius waiting for him at the hospital. He frowned as he looked up at Hermione.

“Want to come with us to see Kingsley? I want to make it quick because I’m supposed to be springing Sirius out of the hospital today,” Harry said with his gaze resting on Hermione.

The three friends marched through the corridors of the Ministry together and garnered a few curious glances. When they entered the Ministry of Magic’s office, Kingsley was talking to his secretary. He looked up and the smile on his face instantly fell. He sighed heavily, standing to his full height as he surveyed the three in front of him.

“It’s never good when I get a visit from all three of you at once,” Kingsley sighed. “Come on in.”

They followed Kingsley into his office. He heaved himself behind his desk as Ron and Hermione took seats across from him. Harry stood, his hands gripping on an empty seat in front of him.

Harry dove into the story for the third time that day, quite exhausted by the tale at this point. Kingsley’s eyes grew wide at the mention of Sirius’ name as he looked between the three of them in near wonderment. By the end, he leaned back in his chair, his hand rubbing his cheek, his face grave. Silence filled the room, the minutes ticking by slowly.

“I want it on the downlow,” Kingsley said finally spoke. “We don’t want the papers picking up that a dead man is back – especially a dead man who has the reputation that Sirius has. Bring Greengrass back in the flow. I’ll demand the two departments work together and share information so it doesn’t seem like you’re investigating him or his department. Only you two are going to be involved in the case for now. We may have to feed false information to Greengrass in the process. I want daily updates on the matter.”

Harry nodded, his face grim. Ron let out a low whistle as he craned around to look at his best mate. He offered a lop-sided half smile.

After hammering out the details, the trio bid their goodbyes before they exited the office. Harry rubbed the back of his neck as they walked through the Minister’s office, looking down at the floor as thoughts and plans swirled in his mind.

“Already here, Auror Potter?” a voice rang.

Harry looked up to see a sullen looking Gareth Greengrass rising from a chair. He had, obviously, been waiting to see Kingsley. Harry merely rocked on his heels, hands shoved in his pockets, and forced a small smile that most likely looked like a grimace on his face. He didn’t have the time nor the energy to battle with the Unspeakable right now. Greengrass was one of the worst ones he ever had the displeasure of meeting.

“He’s all yours,” Harry said moodily as he turned on his heels and exited the office briskly, Ron and Hermione followed dutifully behind him.

* * *

When Harry arrived at St. Mungo’s a look of relief washed over his godfather’s face at once. The tension in his shoulders seemed to leave instantly as Harry crossed the room to stand by the side of his bed. He took a seat in the chair beside the bed, his hand running through his messy locks. It was a habit at this point, anytime he was tired and stressed his hand automatically went to his hair.

“Has a Healer came by to see you yet?” questioned Harry.

“No, not yet,” Sirius replied as he stared at his godson. “You alright?”

“Long day.”

“It’s only eleven,” Sirius reasoned as his glanced at the clock on the wall behind Harry.

“My days are usually long by nine,” Harry said lightly.

The door burst open and Harry craned around to see Malfoy strolling in with a clipboard in his hands. The man was his usual joyful self with a scowl on his face and his movements stiff. His cold eyes surveyed the room before he started flipping through the sheets of paper before taking out a small stack and thrusting them in Harry’s direction.

“These are release papers that need to be filled out. You can get a start on them while I check him over one last time,” he said briskly as Harry accepted the papers.

Harry frowned as he looked down at the forms. There was a bunch of personal information and medical history questions about Sirius that he had no idea how to answer. His heart sank as he looked up at his godfather miserably with the realization hitting him hard just how little he actually knew about Sirius. He wondered if this was how Ginny felt the first time the forms were thrust in her hands when they were still engaged and he found himself in the hospital due to a rather nasty curse that had rendered him unconscious for two whole days.

Malfoy ran his wand over an anxious looking Sirius who merely just stared at his second cousin or whatever they were to one another. Harry gulped as he looked back down at the forms, the quill hovering above the page. He quickly scrawled his godfather’s name down and paused over the birthdate. He didn’t even know the man’s birthday which made a tidal wave of guilt wash over him. He skipped a bunch of questions until he got to the next of kin section and quickly filled out his own information.

“I would wager to say that you’re perfectly healthy physically,” Malfoy said as he pocketed his wand. “I want you to come back in exactly one week just for a checkup. I want you to see a Mind Healer to make sure you are mentally sound.”

“Mentally sound?” questioned Sirius with a tinge of annoyance. “I’m not mental.”

“No, of course not,” Malfoy said sardonically with an eye roll. “You’ve only been in Azkaban for twelve years, on the run for three years, and then disappeared into the land of the dead for fifteen years. You’re right, I’m sure your mental facilities are all still there.”

Sirius scowled as Harry’s eyes darted up to look at Malfoy before turning his attention back to his godfather.

“He’ll be here next week,” Harry said immediately which caused Sirius to glare at him.

“Bloody hell I will,” snapped Sirius.

“With bells on,” Harry added with a pointed look at his godfather.

“You’ll have to keep an eye on him. Make sure there’s no lingering effects of being beyond the Veil for so long,” Malfoy continued as he turned his attention to Harry now and ignoring Sirius.

“You still haven’t told me what we’re looking for when you say _effects_ ,” Harry sighed.

“I don’t know, Potter. I’ve already told you. Any weird behaviors, any trouble with his magic, any accidental bursts of magic. It could be anything and it could be nothing.”

“These forms are invasive by the way,” Harry commented as he tossed the forms onto the bedside table with a frustrated sigh. “I’m not giving out my address to the public or giving out any person information about either of us.”

“It’s not to be made public, Potter,” Malfoy said with a sneer. “Sorry standard hospital forms are such a nuisance to saint Potter. If he wants to leave, I need the forms filled out. Simple as that.”

“I talked to the Minister today. He wants this kept under wraps with the media not finding out. We can’t have a paper trail,” Harry challenged just so he wouldn’t have to look at the damn questions any longer that he couldn’t answer. “File him under a John Doe.”

“A _what_?” Malfoy inquired, his face scrunched up.

“A John Doe. You know, an unknown person.”

“Right…” Malfoy said slowly.

It took about twenty more minutes to get everything squared away before Sirius and Harry walked together down the corridors of St. Mungo’s. Harry flattened his hair over his scar, his head hanging low as he watched his feet to avoid any unwanted attention. They exited through the back door of the hospital, avoiding a majority of people. Harry led him down to an Apparition point and held out his arm for his godfather to take.

“I’m not an invalid, you know. I can Apparate just fine.”

“Yes, but you don’t know where my house is and I’m not risking giving out coordinates for the press to overhear,” Harry commented as Sirius sighed before laying a hand on his godson’s forearm.

Sirius stumbled next to Harry as they landed a block away from Potter House. The older man looked around the vast greenness that surrounded them in Cornwood. There was seemingly nothing around them but Harry could see the red brick chimney of his and Ginny’s Georgian home through a sea of trees. He knew Sirius would not see it as the house was unplottable. He’d have to point out the home to him when they got closer.

Harry started walking, his hands stuffed in his pockets as Sirius kept pace with him. They walked in silence, his godfather’s eyes darting around looking for some sign of civilization or a building. Anything. The road was deserted as it often was. They never saw many cars drive past their home which the Potters were grateful for – not that they’d see the house hidden under the blanket of magic.

“Where is your house?” inquired Sirius.

“Hermione and Flitwick put up enough charms to rival Grimmauld Place,” Harry told him. “Hermione studied the wards on it for a long time. Did you know there’s some pretty dark wards on that place? There’s some pretty shady blood magic on it as well.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Sirius snorted.

“Hermione didn’t dare replicate those wards, but she figured out some pretty decent counterparts.”

They slipped into silence again and the house came into clearer view. He could see the long horseshow driveway, the small white porch, the weathered red bricks that had some green vines growing up the sides, the windows in the roof, the two chimneys. He also saw a gaggle of kids playing out front. Harry smiled as he turned towards Sirius as he stopped when he thought they were within the ward’s boundaries. Harry pointed out two large oak trees that were on either side of the beginning of the driveway to Sirius.

“Look through those oak trees,” Harry instructed. “It’s a red brick house. Big. Long driveway.”

Harry watched his godfather’s face intently as he stared between the trees. His eyes widened when the house materialized as he nodded his head absentmindedly. Harry could tell he had gotten past the wards and they continued their journey. They were right in front of the long driveway when Harry spotted Lily sitting with an array of chalk around her as she scribbled on the concrete. Al lay on the hard ground as Teddy traced his body with red chalk like he was outlining a dead body. Harry grimaced and then caught James hovering in the air on a broom as he talked to Teddy and Al.

“Al! Stay still! You’re gonna to ruin the outline!” shouted James. “Teddy, hurry up!”

“Do _you_ want to do this instead?” Teddy snapped as he craned his neck back to look at the younger boy. “It was your bloody idea!”

“Language, Edward! I’ll tell Mum and she’ll scream like a banshee at you!” James warned, his finger wagging at the older boy with a smirk gracing his features.

Harry and Sirius continued up the drive. He glanced nervously over at his godfather to see a slight smile gracing his features, his eyes drinking in the scene in front of him with excitement.

“DADA!” Lily screeched loudly.

The little two-year-old was now running as fast as her feet could carry her. Her poofy hoop skirt bouncing with every step she took. James and Teddy whipped their attention up the drive while Al sat up, his hands smearing the chalk outline around him.

“Lily, slow before you fall!” Harry shouted.

Lily did not slow down running, her grin wide on her face. Harry jogged forward because he knew if she fell, she would get a nasty burn from the concrete. He caught her in his arms, easily and glided her up onto his hip. Her hands wrapped around his neck, no doubt smearing chalk all over his work robes, as she nestled her nose into the side of his face.

Harry stilled. James still hovered on the broom. Teddy stood up now as he wiped the chalk all over his khaki shorts. His hair, which had been a brilliant blue, was now jet black. Al had jumped up from the half done chalk outline of his body and had his arms wrapped around Teddy’s thighs.

Sirius caught up at this point, his shoulder bumping with Harry’s as he looked at the children. His godfather curiously looked over at Lily who gave him a wide smile and waved at him happily.

“Sirius, this is Lily,” he said introduced before pointing at his godson. “That’s Teddy, the oldest. He’s Remus’ son. Hanging on him is Al. In the air, without adult supervision so he knows not to be on a broom, is James. Kids, this is my godfather, Sirius Black.”

Harry watched Sirius carefully, saw the tight and overwhelmed smile on his face. James flew to the ground and hopped off the broom, clenching it in his hands as he bravely took a step forward. Of course, out of all the children, James would be the boldest one and meet the stranger first. There was a grin on his face as he strolled forward.

“So, you’re Sirius?” he asked. “You know, I’m named after you.”

“What?” questioned Sirius with a furrowed brow.

“I’m named after you,” he continued. “James Sirius Potter.”

Sirius looked at Harry, a small look of disbelief written clearly across his face. Harry returned a sheepish smile to his godfather as Lily wiggled to get out of his arms. He let her down slowly, her bare feet brushing the pavement.

“Well, I mean, yeah,” Harry said awkwardly. “I named him James Sirius after you and dad.”

“Why?” questioned Sirius.

“Because he was my dad and you’re my godfather. It just seemed… right. It was probably the only name Ginny and I agreed on instantly.”

The front door burst open. Ginny stood in the doorway, an apron slung over her neck but untied at the waist. The fabric extended down past her shorts giving a rather scandalous appearance. She wiped her hands on her stomach as a smile spread across her features. She made her way down the couple of steps towards the group in the driveway. Her eyes then saw James clenching a broom.

“James, what have your father and I told you about riding brooms without one of us present?” Ginny demanded.

“Not to do it,” he replied in a bored tone as he looked over at her.

“Then, don’t do it.”

“Teddy was here,” James protested.

“Teddy is twelve years old. He’s not an adult who can supervise,” Ginny said with an exasperated tone as she wrenched the broom out of her son’s grasp. 

“He goes to Hogwarts though,” James said pointedly. “He’s old enough.”

“Not old enough,” Ginny snapped.

“Yeah, don’t drag me into this,” Teddy announced, his arm slung around Al’s shoulders. “I don’t want to be responsible for you.”

“Don’t be a wanker, Teddy,” James shot back.

“James!” Ginny hissed. “Where did you hear that?”

“Uh… Uncle Ron?” he supplied.

“Don’t repeat anything you hear from your Uncle Ron, alright? Merlin, I’ll skin him alive.”

“WAN’WAW!” Lily chirped happily as she bounced on the balls of her feet as Ginny glared at James.

“Enough,” Harry said wearily as he pushed his glasses up with his hand to rub his eye with his palm. “Remember what we talked about last night?”

“No,” James replied with a grin.

“’Course he doesn’t. He was dropped on the head one too many times as a baby,” Teddy teased as James scowled. “Permanently damaged I reckon.”

“ _Ted_ ,” Harry breathed.

Teddy and James were close but, in the last year, their relationship had shifted from hugs and cuddles to snide remarks and playful ribbing. Harry highly suspected that James was confused sometimes by the shift in rapport albeit a little hurt at times. Teddy merely rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Sirius.

“You knew my dad, right?” Teddy questioned.

“Remus? Yeah, we were friends since we were eleven years old. It was your dad, Harry’s dad, and me. We were all best friends. You grandmother is my cousin you know,” Sirius supplied hoarsely as he stared at the child in front of him.

“Harry’s told me a bunch of stories,” Teddy said as he stepped forward, Al following him dutifully and refusing to let go. “Do you think you could tell me more?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I could do that,” Sirius replied as ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe Harry can join us too. He could use some more stories about James, Remus, and I at Hogwarts.”

“Can I join too?” James piped up. “Dad said you guys made the map. He gave it to Teddy when he went to Hogwarts last year. He said Teddy has to pass it down to me when I go to school.”

“Harry said I had to either give you the cloak or the map when you turn eleven. Then, when I graduate, I have to give them both over,” Teddy clarified. “Just wait until Al and Lily go. You’re going to have to pass them down to them.”

“You have the cloak too?” Sirius inquired as Teddy shifted uncomfortably.

“Yeah, Harry said it belonged to his dad and was supposed to be passed down within the family. I… Harry said I was like a son to him.”

The boy’s eyes darted to his godfather. Harry gave him an encouraging smile as Lily started to stand on his feet. He reached down and grasped the girl’s hands into his as she stood on his shoes and giggled. He knew his youngest wanted to dance with him but he stayed still.

“James would be happy you have it,” Sirius said in a rush.

“Every time you say James, I think you’re talking about me and I get confused ‘cause I have no idea what you are talking about,” James said with a frown.

Sirius looked down at the tiny six-year-old. Harry wondered briefly if it was hard to have another James and Lily Potter around. He loved that they had honored his parents through his children’s names. Suddenly, however, it all felt a little silly with Sirius standing there talking about his dead dad.

“We can call him… call him Prongs,” Sirius said thickly. “You know about Prongs, Padfoot, and Moony I presume?”

“YEAH!” James shouted. “You can turn into a dog!”

“Can you turn into Padfoot?” inquired Teddy with a grin.

The awkwardness from Sirius seem to disappear as he shook out his arms dramatically, a grin crossing his features. He easily shifted into Padfoot. The three youngest children squealed in delight. Teddy immediately breathed a noise of excitement and exclaimed, “That’s so cool!” Lily, rather painfully jumped off her father’s shoes, and hugged Padfoot around the neck. Al had broken out of his shell and pet him roughly on his head. James and Teddy crouched down behind the younger kids trying to pet the dog.

Harry looked up at Ginny to see her smiling at the scene in front of them. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He didn’t quite know why he had been so nervous about Sirius meeting the kids. Maybe it was his unusual paleness and confusion of the day before. Maybe it was the way he had barely said more than a few sentences as he was clearly shocked by the turn of events. Harry knew that it was going to take a while for the awkwardness to fade, for Sirius to cope with his new surroundings and the time shift of fifteen years. They’d all do it together… as a family.

Ginny led them around to the back of the house where she had set up the patio table for lunch. Glasses, plates, silverware, and the like had already been laid out. Sirius transformed back into his human self and found himself bombarded with four kids asking questions and fighting over who got to sit next to him.

“Oi, you lot, what did we say last night? Best behavior and don’t climb all over Sirius!” Ginny snapped before disappearing into the house.

“I’ll play broom, bludger, bat to sit next to Sirius,” James called out as he held out a fist to Al. “Best two out of three.”

The two boys battled, their fists bouncing in the air. James’ bludger beat Al’s broom. Then, Al’s bat beat James’ bludger. Finally, James’ broom beat Al’s bat. James threw up his arms in victory, a smile spread wide across his face as Al started whining. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh as he sat down at the table. Teddy had already claimed a spot next to him while the brothers spat.

“I never understood why broom beat bat,” Sirius commented as Harry took a spot next to his godson. “It flies to avoid the broom? Really?”

“Well, it’s sort of like the Muggle version. How does paper really beat a rock? There’s always one that doesn’t seem to make sense,” Harry commented as James dashed around the table to claim his seat.

Al sat down next to his brother while Lily happily took a spot next to her dad. The patio door swung open and food started levitating itself out. Condiments, fish, and chips floated through the air and landed gracefully on the table. Several butterbeers and a jug of pumpkin juice came next. Finally, a treacle tart floated right in front of Ginny as she stepped outside. She took her spot between Al and Lily. Harry and Ginny each took one of the younger kid’s plate to fill it with food while James, Teddy, and Sirius began to dig in.

“So, who is Minister of Magic now?” questioned Sirius. “You kept mentioning him and how he’s a friend.”

“Oh, Kingsley,” Harry said as he cut up pieces of fish for Lily with his fork. “He became Minister shortly after the war. He’s held the office for nearly twelve years. People love him although he’s been saying for two years now that he wants to step down.”

“He loves it too much to step down,” Ginny commented as she started pouring pumpkin juice for all of the kids.

“Oh, he loves it until he sees me appear in his office,” Harry said with a grin. “He says I never come for a nice chat. There’s always an issue when I pop in.”

“Well, start popping in for a chat then once and a while so he doesn’t dread seeing you.”

“I haven’t the time to just pop in for a chat. Ron’s useless when it comes to helping me with the paperwork. He can’t discipline anyone to save his arse unless he really hates them, so that always falls on my shoulders too.”

“What exactly _does_ Ron do for you as your Deputy Head?” questioned Ginny.

“Honestly, keeps me from burning down the whole bloody department out of frustration,” Harry commented dryly.

Sirius laughed with a look of bewilderment crossing his features. He looked amongst the people at the table as though soaking in all the faces, personalities, stories. Harry couldn’t blame his godfather for being overwhelmed. He knew if he had jumped fifteen years into the future to when his kids were all adults with their own lives… his mind would be spinning madly. He looked over at Teddy who refilled his glass with more pumpkin juice and imagined the twelve-year-old suddenly twenty-seven, married, and with kids of his own. His mind swirled. He grabbed a butterbeer and corked it open, taking a big gulp.

“Well, if that’s all Ron is good for, you should really find a new Deputy Head,” Ginny said coolly. “Someone who could, I don’t know, take on some of the responsibilities for you.”

“Well, the few times I get out of the office and actually do casework, Ron’s my partner. I don’t trust anyone else to watch my back,” Harry commented thoughtfully. “So, I put up with it because he’s my best mate and I trust him to keep me alive. He’s done well all these years as my partner. I couldn’t imagine another one I’d trust so much.”

“I distinctly remember you in the hospital at least once a month, if not more, when you were actively on cases with Ron,” Ginny retorted dryly.

“I was always a bit of a target,” Harry defended his friend. “Ron always got me to the hospital quick. He’d abandon a fight in a flash if I was down and I did the same for him. We watched each other’s backs. We protected each other before all else. It used to drive Robards mad.”

“Robards? Gawain Robards?” inquired Sirius.

“Yeah, he was Head Auror when Ron and I joined after the war. Did you know him?”

“By reputation only. Heard he was a bit of an arse.”

“He was… different. Gruff, no-nonsense. I think Ron and I annoyed him but he put up with us because we were… well…”

“You were what?”

“They were war heroes,” Ginny supplied. “Not to mention, golden boys of Kingsley’s.”

Harry scrunched up his nose. He could remember the early days in the Auror office. He could remember how everyone thought they were too young and not educated enough to become Aurors. The position had been draped in prestige before the war – only the top students and top applicants accepted. Then came Harry and Ron who were barely eighteen with no N.E.W.T.’s between them but a bucketload of experience. He would hear the nasty remarks that they were only accepted to be Aurors because they were personal friends of the new Minister and their experience had been a handful of lucky endeavors. It took a while to prove themselves before they were finally accepted and welcomed by the office. Robards, however, never seemed to like them. In fact, Robards never seemed to like anyone. Except, Kingsley had told him Robards had admired Harry and that’s why he was always particular hard on him over the years.

Lunch continued. Teddy asked questions in rapid succession about his dad at school. James, wanting to be included, asked his own questions and told tales of his own pranks that him and Teddy would pull during Friday night dinners at the Burrow and holidays. Al interrupted in his own little voice, sometimes just repeating a story that his brother or godbrother had said. Lily, sweet little Lily, babbled about nonsense while tugging on her father’s sleeve.

The more Sirius talked, the more at ease he seemed to become with the situation. The tension was slowly leaving his shoulders, the smiles seemed less forced, his voice seemed less strangled. The laughter started flowing easily especially after he was three butterbeers in. They lingered at the table after lunch was long finished. At some point, Lily and Al decided to play in the back garden. They chased each other with fits of laughter and yelling, “ _TAG!”_ in their childish voices. Before long, James soon grew bored and joined in on the game his siblings were playing. Teddy, however, sat rooted in his seat as though fascinated by Sirius Black. Sirius was an even deeper connection to his father than even Harry had been. Sirius knew Remus on a deeper, more personal level than he had.

“Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum,” James came barreling towards the table. “Can we fly? Pleeeeeeeease.”

“Sure,” Ginny said. “Get the brooms out. Teddy, dear, would you want to fly with Lily?”

“Uh…” Teddy hesitated until little Lily was at his elbow.

“Tee, pweese fwy?” her little voice peeped with her big eyes gazing up at him.

Teddy slowly pushed back his chair and Lily squawked loudly when the older boy squatted down to let her clamor onto his back. He jumped off the back porch and ran through the backyard to the shed where the brooms were housed. She squealed the entire time, her little hands clenching around his neck in a death grip.

James and Al were already mounting their brooms into the air. Ginny had placed charms on them so that they could rise no higher than the shed roof. Lily shimmied off her godbrother’s back so he could grab his own broom and mount it. Lily, clumsily, mounted in front of him. Her hands gripped the wood tightly as Teddy wrapped his arms around the small child with his hands gripping the handle around her hands. They rose into the air, rising higher than the other two boys as Teddy’s broom did not have any safety charms cast on them.

“No higher than the shed with Lily on!” Harry called. “TED!”

Teddy gave them a cheeky smile before he lowered the broom, Lily giggled madly with her legs kicking wildly in the air. Harry sighed, shifting his chair slightly to see the kids while Ginny walked around the table to sit next to Sirius to see them easier.

“How do you feel, Sirius?” Ginny asked as she reached for a bottle of butterbeer and twisted off the cap before tossing it onto James’ empty plate.

“I feel like I’m dreaming,” he responded honestly as he stared at the kids on the brooms flying around. “It just… doesn’t feel real. Azkaban was different. I know time passed while I was there. I was surprised by just how much time passed, but it wasn’t… as big of a shock. This… I remember, very clearly, sitting in Grimmauld Place drinking firewhiskey with Remus four days ago. Now, Remus is dead. I remember seeing my fifteen-year-old godson two days ago in the Department of Mysteries, remember telling him to get out of there. Now, Harry’s an adult. There’s a bunch of kids I don’t know but who obviously know quite a bit about me. It just… doesn’t feel _real_. I mean, I’m sitting outside for fuck’s sake.”

Harry could hear the blood pumping in his ears, his gaze glued onto his godson who rose slowly into the air and then dropped dramatically down much to the excitement of Lily who was not holding back her fits of giggles.

“It’ll get easier,” Ginny’s voice rang sympathetically. “We are all here for you, Sirius. I promise you, this isn’t a dream. Just wait until the boys start throwing fists and pushing one another. The dream will fade quick.”

Sirius chuckled softly and Harry dared to catch a glimpse of him. He was leaning back in his chair, his hands clenching a bottle of beer, his face looking so longingly at the kids. Ginny’s hand was on his back, rubbing comforting circles. His jaw was clenched tight, the uncertainty that had disappeared briefly during their lunch was back in full swing. Harry had no idea how to help the man. He knew, however, that Draco Malfoy was right. He needed to see someone about the mental aspect of everything that happened. He was going to get his godfather the help he needed whether the man wanted it or not.

That night, Harry and Ginny put the kids to bed. James and Al fought viciously about sharing room. At one point, James had shoved Al out of his big queen bed. Ginny divided the bed down the middle with a streak from her wand and challenged either one of them to cross it. Teddy watched, amused, from the doorway while Harry ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“I swear to Merlin, James, if you push him out of this bed one more time, you won’t fly until you get to Hogwarts,” Ginny threatened with her hands on her hips.

“Why can’t I share with Teddy?” whined James.

“Because, I’m too old to share a room! I’m double your age now!” Teddy protested from the doorway.

“You’re _supposed_ to be my best friend!” James said with hurt lacing his words.

“I’m your big brother, Jamie,” Teddy retorted.

“That’s just mean!” lamented James miserably as he flopped on the bed dramatically as tears welled up in his eyes.

“Calling you my brother when I have no actual blood ties to you is mean?” Teddy asked in an exasperated tone.

“Well, yeah! Uncle Ron and Dad are best friends! They’re closer than Uncle Ron and Uncle George! Best friends are closer and better!” James choked out a sob as the tears were now freely flowing down his cheeks.

Harry was about to say something when he saw Sirius lingering behind Teddy. He had watched the scene unfold in front of him with a frown etched onto his features. He took a step closer and leaned against the frame of the door with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You know, your… your grandfather and I were very close,” Sirius started slowly, a funny look crossing his face. “James would hex anyone that said we were best friends. He said best friends wasn’t enough. That we were brothers and people had better call us brothers or else he’d have something to say about it.”

“Best friends are brothers and brothers are best friends,” Ginny said firmly. “All three of you are brothers and best friends, got it?”

Teddy sighed deeply and ran his hand through his vibrant blue hair. He stepped into the bedroom and walked to James’ side of the bed. The young boy was still frowning, red tear tracks shining brightly on his pale skin, though he looked thoughtful like he was considering what was said.

“Shove over, James, the three of us will bunk together tonight. _Just_ tonight though. Tomorrow, it’s you and Al.”

James, eagerly, moved to the center of the bed to make room for Teddy. The older boy climbed in, shoving his legs under the covers and punched the pillow once before flopping down. Harry couldn’t help but smile at the three.

“Teddy, make your hair black! We’re _brothers_ ,” James stressed happily.

Rolling his eyes, he turned his hair a jet black. The younger boys hooted and hollered excitedly. James took off his glasses and handed them to Teddy to sit on his bedside table. The adults eased out of the room, bidding their goodnights before turning off the light and closing the door. They heard the three boys chat excitedly.

“Thanks, Sirius,” Ginny said with a smile.

“It’s weird thinking of James as a grandfather,” he admitted with a faraway look on his face. “I don’t know exactly what that makes me.”

“A grand-godfather?” Ginny supplied.

“You can be whatever you want to be to them,” Harry said quietly as Sirius stared at him.

Sirius merely nodded and looked deep in thought as he bid them goodnight and disappeared into Al’s room. Harry, numbly, walked into the master bedroom with Ginny trailing behind him. He changed quickly before he disappeared into the bathroom. Before long, Ginny popped in as well.

“I think it went well today,” Ginny commented.

Harry nodded as he brushed his teeth, his gaze wandering to Ginny as she pulled her long hair back into a messy bun before lathering her face up with some thick, foamy gel and washing it. She patted her face dry as he spat in the sink and tossed his toothbrush back in the holder. She rummaged through the medicine cabinet in front of her.

“They were relatively well behaved,” Harry commented as he leaned against the counter.

“As the day went on, Sirius seemed more at ease. I can’t imagine the shock of being transported in time fifteen years in a blink of an eye,” she spoke sadly as she pulled out a rather large potion vial with shimmering purple liquid inside. “It would feel like a dream to him. Everyone is so much older and everything is so different but he’s the same.”

Ginny uncorked the bottle and poured a portion of the liquid into a small cup that was sitting next to the sink. She threw back the potion easily before starting to rinse out the glass.

“So, you’re still a no,” he said flatly as he watched her put the lid back on the potion.

“What?” she questioned as she turned to look at him.

“The potion. That’s the contraception potion.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess it’s still a no. I mean, I thought you were honestly joking about having a fifth kid. Knowing our luck, we’d have twins. It runs in my family, you know? Could you imagine six kids?” she said slowly as she put the bottle back in the medicine cabinet.

“I just…” Harry trailed off, crossing his arms over his chest. “Like the idea of a big family.”

“We _do_ have a big family. We have the most kids out of any of my siblings. From what I heard last family dinner from Fleur, Bill has an appointment at St. Mungo’s next month to…” Ginny made a clicking sound with her tongue. “He’ll forever have three kids. So, we’re still in the lead with four.”

“There were seven of you,” Harry pointed out.

“You want seven kids?” inquired Ginny. “Merlin, Harry, are you mental? We won’t have enough bedrooms.”

“Well, I always thought we’d move or I’m sure your dad would tell me how he added onto the Burrow.”

“Harry, your job is very demanding. You are known to work twelve hour days. You don’t shy away from working from home on the weekends. I enjoy my job. I love getting out of the house to go on talk shows to talk about Quidditch and write my articles. We have any more kids and I’m going to have to quit my job. I mean, Merlin, Harry, I already feel bad about Mum watching our lot since she also has Ron’s lot she looks after. That’s five kids all under the age of six for her. My mum’s not getting any younger.”

Harry frowned. He knew he worked a lot but he took the Head Auror position so that he wouldn’t travel as much and it gave him the flexibility to work from home so he could always at least attempt to make family events.

“Well, James is in school all week now. Al and Rose are attending nursery school in the fall.”

“Yes, Harry, and that’s two places Mum has to pick kids up from now with two toddlers in tow. We ask a lot of her already especially with insisting the kids go to Muggle school.”

“We can hire a nanny.”

“Oh, yeah, like you’d trust anyone but family to watch the kids,” Ginny said with a laugh. “You’d be worried sick about some stranger being around the kids and selling stories about us to the papers. We live in the middle of nowhere for a reason with more wards around the house than Hogwarts.”

Harry distinctly remembered the year and a half after the war when he’d lived in Grimmauld Place. He was constantly swarmed by reporters every time he stepped off the front step. It got so bad, he stopped leaving through the front door. He couldn’t go for a walk or shopping nearby without cameras constantly flashing in his face. Ginny had only lived there six months before she threw up her hands and demanded to move. That’s when they found the house in Cornwood, two towns over from where Ginny grew up.

“We have a beautiful, big family already, Harry. I love the children we have. I love the size of our family. It is perfect,” she spoke softly. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“What am I thinking?” inquired Harry with a frown.

She took a step forward until she stood directly in front of him. She rose to her tip toes so she could sling her arms on his shoulders. Her chest leaned into his. She felt warm against him. He slipped his arms around her waist.

“They’ll never be lonely,” she spoke softly.

“Who?”

“The kids. I know you were lonely growing up. They’ll never be lonely. There’s four of them plus all of their cousins. There is never a time when one of them won’t have a playmate. They are loved and will never be lonely.”

Harry stilled in her arms, growing slightly tense. He frowned deeper at her, his brows disappearing behind his glasses.

“You’ll never be lonely again either,” she continued as her hands cupped his cheeks. “I know you like how loud they are, how there’s always someone to talk to, there’s always someone to hug. Even when they go off to Hogwarts and the house is quiet for the first time in twenty years, they’ll write us like crazy and we can get a dog and we can enjoy the simplicities of date nights and dinner at home in our underwear.”

Harry grinned, a small chortle escaping his lips. He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. Her fingers intertwined with his hair and pulled him deeper into the kiss. He pulled away and their foreheads connected.

“We had kids young, Harry. I’m not complaining about that one bit, because I love the family we’ve created and I love being a young mom. It will be nice though when Lily’s off at Hogwarts and we can enjoy it being us for once. We haven’t been alone since before the war. When I moved in after school, Teddy was already living with you. I love Teddy so much and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I do look forward to it being just us some day again.”

“I don’t want to pull a Bill though and get… you know. In case we change our minds.”

“I’m not asking you to do that,” Ginny said adamantly. “We do have enough on our plates right now though. We have four kids, two careers, and now a long-lost godfather under our roof. We couldn’t manage another baby right now.”

“By the way, Kingsley approved an investigation into the Department of Mysteries. I’m going to be busy in the upcoming weeks.”

“See! No time for another baby!” she said with a smirk. “I was going to continue to send the kids to Mum’s tomorrow and Friday. I was going to work from home in case Sirius needs anything. I just have some articles to write. No talk radio or anything planned until next week.”

“Where’s Teddy going? With your mum or is Andromeda taking him?”

“Mum’s going to have him the rest of the week.”

“Might not be a bad idea to ask Andromeda to come over and see Sirius next week when you’re back at work,” Harry suggested. “They were always each other’s favorite cousin. We can’t have you working from home long term anyways. Ease him back into normal life.”

“Do you think it’ll be obvious if we plan on having people check on him next week while we’re at work? I’m sure George would swing by one day. My dad would swing by one day too. Ron could easily leave multiple days to check up on him. I hear Ron has a very kind, understanding, and sexy boss.”

“Oh, does he now?” Harry questioned as he wiggled his eyebrows. “I heard he was a berk. They say when he became the Vanquisher, he let the popularity go to his head.”

“I heard he has a tattoo of a Hungarian Horntail on his chest,” she murmured.

“I heard he has a tattoo of a pygmy puff on his arse,” he replied with a grin.

“I heard that too. A nice pink one,” she said with her eyes sparkling. “I’m afraid to say, the pygmy puff is just a rumor.”

“Are you saying you cheated on me?”

“How could I pass up a chance to sleep with the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the Vanquisher? With an arse like his and those eyes… they’re like fresh pickled toads.”

“You’re barmy,” Harry whispered.

“You love it.”

She pulled away from him and gripped his hand into hers. She tugged him slowly out of the bathroom, a mischievous grin plastered across her lips. Harry just barely had time to grab his wand from beside the sink and cast a Silencing Charm on the room. He knew they wouldn’t be sleeping for awhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. I have up to chapter eight written so the updates until then should come pretty regularly. I'm planning a 10/11 chapter story so it is almost all completed. Don't forget to review!


	3. The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Arnel for editing for me.

**“Cheating Death”**

**“Chapter Three: The Call”**

  
  
Harry ambled into the kitchen with Lily in his arms, her sleepy head still resting on his shoulder. Sirius and Ginny were already up. His godfather was sitting at the kitchen table drinking some tea and reading the _Daily Prophet_ while Ginny was busy cooking breakfast. Upon his entrance, Sirius looked up at him. A small grin crossed his face before he looked back down at the paper.  
  
“It’s completely different,” Sirius said suddenly as Harry sank in a chair next to him, Lily sliding to sit on his lap.  
  
The little girl faced him, her legs on either side of his waist. She was slumped against him, her cheek pressed up against his chest just under his chin. Her princess nightgown twisted on her small frame as she wiggled into a comfortable position. He turned to look at his godfather, his cheek resting on top of her messy, red curls.  
  
“What is?” questioned Harry as Ginny levitated a cup of coffee over to him. “Thanks.”  
  
“The paper. Remember how it used to be all about tearing people down and reporting anything but the news? Now it actually reports the news,” Sirius said in wonderment as Harry chuckled.   
  
“Kingsley’s been cracking down. Newspapers have to actually report the news or else they’ll have to be labeled as gossip magazines like _Witch Weekly_ ,” commented Harry. “You know, Ginny has a Quidditch column in the _Prophet_.”  
  
Sirius flipped through the pages until he found the sports section. It was easy to find Ginny’s column, _Potter Points_ , as it was always one of the first columns in the section. He supposed being a famous ex-Quidditch player helped her get the prime spot but it was her sheer talent that had allowed her to keep it all these years. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh several times as he read her piece. Ginny was quite funny when she wrote, weaving in little jokes and sarcasm throughout her pieces.   
  
Teddy walked into the kitchen dragging his feet, his blue hair rumpled and sticking up in every direction possible. His eyes were an emerald green — a color he seemed rather taken by. The boy secretly liked whenever someone would comment that he looked like his godfather. He would grin proudly up at Harry anytime it happened. He took a seat across from the two men as he curled his arms together on the table and laid his head on top of them.  
  
“What’s his deal?” whispered Sirius.  
  
“He hates morning,” Harry commented as he surveyed his godson thoughtfully.   
  
Platters of eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, toast floated to the center of the table. Then, silverware, plates, butter, and jams soared over as well. Ginny ambled over with a glass of pumpkin juice in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. She sat the juice in front of Teddy wordlessly as she took a spot next to him.  
  
“You’re quite good, Ginny,” Sirius said suddenly as he folded up the paper.  
  
“I have many talents, Sirius,” she replied as her hand ran through Teddy’s locks. “Come on, Ted, Harry’s taking you lot over to the Burrow today on his way to work since I’m working from home. You know he likes to leave early.”  
  
“MORNING, FAMILY!”   
  
The kitchen doors burst open and James Potter marched into the room with a wide smile on his face. Al trailed behind him dutifully. James took a spot next to Teddy while Al sat in the free spot at the head of the table. Harry slid Lily to her own seat and started piling her plate with eggs and breaking up a pancake and sausage into smaller bites for her. Ginny quickly abandoned her own plate as she stood up and started piling food on one for Al. Teddy raised his head and sleepily grabbed a piece of toast while James took a healthy serving of just eggs. A cup and two sippy cups flew through the air and settled in front of James, Al, and Lily.  
  
“You take after Remus,” commented Sirius nonchalantly as he stared at Teddy. “He was always so grumpy in the morning. After a full moon, you couldn’t talk to him until it was nearly lunchtime.”  
  
Teddy looked up at the man, his piece of toast hovering just in front of his lips. A small smirk spread across his features before he took a giant bite. The boy’s gaze flew to his godfather.  
  
“You never told me that,” Teddy said.  
  
“I didn’t know,” Harry replied honestly.  
  
Harry stilled in his seat, an odd weight resting on his chest. It was little comments like those that he wasn’t able to provide Teddy that made him feel like he was a poor choice of godfather. He knew Remus well enough but didn’t know enough about his little mannerisms like if he was a morning person or a night owl. Harry gulped a large stone that was settled in his own throat. He now vaguely wandered, what his own dad had been like in the mornings. It was the type of thing he never thought to ask and nobody mentioned so nonchalantly. Remus never gave offhanded comments about Lily and James like that. When Sirius would make comments before in Grimmauld Place, he normally got choked up and left not long after.   
  
Ron’s familiar Jack Russell Terrier barreled into the kitchen and stood like a shimmering ghost right on top of the eggs. His kids were not fazed by the Patronus. In fact, Teddy scooped up eggs with the serving spoon through the silvery mist.  
  
“Dead body found in the Department of Mysteries right in front of the bloody Veil. Merlin fuck, Harry, you were right,” Ron’s voice filled the kitchen as Ginny scowled at the language while Al suddenly asked what fuck meant. “I swear, I keep saying I’m not going to judge your weird intuition but I always do, but I mean it this time. I won’t question you next time. Get your arse over here now. Kingsley wants to meet with us in five and we got to go see the body before it’s moved.”  
  
“Ginny…” Harry trailed off as the dog evaporated from the table.  
  
“What _does_ fuck mean?” James piped up with a smirk gracing his features and Sirius snorted into his bacon.  
  
“Go, I’ll get the kids to my mum’s,” Ginny sighed. “Tell Ron I’m going to kill him next time I see him.”  
  
Harry kissed Lily on the cheek before standing up with his fingers clenched around the handle of his coffee mug. With his free hand, he clamped Sirius on the shoulder before make his way around the table. He kissed Ginny briefly on the lips before kissing each boy on the tops of their heads. He sipped his coffee as he made his way out of the kitchen.  
  
“Bring that mug home this time! You leave too many at the office!” Ginny cried after him.  
  
He chuckled as he thought of the array of coffee mugs that had collected in the corner of his office. He _always_ forgot to bring them home. It had become a running gag for Ginny to pick up random mugs every time she was out shopping and found a particularly funny one. He grabbed his briefcase by the front door and disappeared out into the warm summer air. As he made his way to the Apparition point beyond the house’s wards, he looked down at the mug that read, _“How do you like them Quaffles?”_ with two large Quaffles printed underneath the words.  
  


  
There were two Unspeakables stationed outside of the Department of Mysteries. The door was wide open to reveal a circular room. There was an array of handleless doors all around the Entrance Chamber. Ron and Harry stepped into the room, their shoes clicking on the dark marble. The guards positioned outside did not even acknowledge them as they passed, their faces were emotionless as always. Ron elbowed his best friend in the side as he hummed pleasantly, an odd smirk gracing his features. Harry nodded and knew Ron couldn’t wait to tell Hermione more evidence to their theory about Unspeakables.  
  
Another Unspeakable stood in the circular room and they noticed that a door was already opened for them. Still wordless, the pair made their way to the open door to peer inside the Death Chamber. There was a still body on the floor with a woman stepping around it snapping photos. Harry recognized her immediately as Darby Hansley. She was a crime scene photographer that worked with the Aurors as well as several other departments in the Ministry. She looked up briefly at the pair as they entered the room before turning back to snap another picture.  
  
Harry noticed the blood on the floor almost immediately. It was hard not to as it painted the form in an odd sigil that he had never seen before. It was a straight, vertical line with two horizontal dashes through it at one end. Another horizontal line above the odd looking almost T-shape. Below all the horizontal lines, on either side of the vertical line, were two circles.  
  
“What the bloody hell does that mean? We need Hermione. It’s probably some ancient runes shite,” Ron muttered as his head gestured towards the symbol.  
  
“I’ll show her a picture of it later. It’d be weird to bring her to a crime scene like this,” Harry said out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
Harry walked by the symbol and up the few steps to stand on the dais where the pale body of a male lay. There was a bright red gash across his neck and a pool of blood underneath him. Harry frowned as the camera flashed next to him. He sidestepped until he stood very close to Darby, their shoulders nearly touching.  
  
Darby had joined the Ministry two years ago. She was twenty with charmed purple hair that was always pulled back into a messy bun with a thick headband. She normally wore a variety of various plaid shirts and jeans with holes in the knees. Today, she favored a buffalo plaid and black jeans that were ripped more than normal. She was always chewing Muggle gum which Ron found annoying and was sure to tell her every time he saw her. Harry, however, quite liked her. She was discrete when he asked her to be and didn’t ogle at him like some others did because she was a Muggleborn. She knew the stories and the legends but wasn’t as phased by them as most as she didn’t find out about the Wizarding World until after the war had ended. She was extremely good at keeping things professional. He supposed that’s why he always requested Darby for the crime scenes and had all but put her on the Auror payroll. His department had priority over her.  
  
“When did you get here?” Harry asked without looking at Darby.  
  
“About an hour ago. Place was swarming with Unspeakables so I couldn’t start taking photos until about ten minutes ago,” she replied in a low voice as she rose the camera to her eye and snapped another picture. “What all do you want, Harry?”  
  
“You know the normal stuff. I’m sure you’ve already got all that. You know I like when you get a bunch of close ups, far aways, weird angles. I’ll give you a bonus if you can sneak in some inconspicuous photos of Greengrass or any of the other Unspeakables facial expressions,” Harry spoke softly with his mouth mere inches away from her ear, his hand covering his mouth from onlookers. “You know what I like.”  
  
“You do like the oddest angles possible,” she replied with a smirk.   
  
“They inspire me to see things differently. It helps,” he said lightly.  
  
“You’ll be happy to know that I did take some pictures of the Unspeakables already as they were swarming the place. They were all chatting in circles. They looked nervous. I thought you’d be interested.”  
  
“That is why you’re my favorite crime scene photographer, Darby,” he said with a grin. “You know what I want without me having to ask for it.”  
  
“You’re peculiar, Harry, so I just take pictures of abnormal things.”  
  
She walked away from him as she stepped over the legs of the body. She went back to taking pictures. Harry noted how she positioned herself in a crouched position, camera angled up in an awkward way, and snapped a picture. He saw Greengrass was most likely in the line of fire. He smiled to himself as Ron made his way up the dais.  
  
“Oi, Darby, stop it with the gum, already! How have your teeth not fallen out yet?” Ron complained.  
  
“I do it now just to annoy you, Weasley!” she rang as she did close ups of the blood sigil on the floor.  
  
“Unspeakables were swarming the place looking rather nervous before we got here,” Harry commented in a low voice as he took in the body in front of him. “What’s Greengrass doing?”  
  
“Looking at you like he wants to feed you to a ruddy hippogriff,” Ron said dryly. “You know exactly how to piss people off, you know that, don’t you?”  
  
“It’s part of my charm,” Harry replied with a grin. “I’m only truly at ease if I’m pissing someone off.”  
  
“It’s that childhood trauma you bury deep down inside coming out again,” Ron said as he crouched down in front of the body.  
  
Harry frowned slightly and crouched down beside his best mate. Ron ran his wand over the body to do a diagnostic scan. The body was glowing a soft white, shimmering and glistening. Once it got to the neck, it glowed a murky black.  
  
“So, it wasn’t a spell that killed him,” Ron said. “It was an enchanted knife or something?”  
  
“I think, given the slash mark, it would be a knife, so yeah, let’s put knife in the report.”  
  
“I was thinking of putting enchanted spoon but you’re the man in charge.”  
  
“Auror Potter,” Greengrass’ voice rang.  
  
Harry and Ron both raised to their full height as Greengrass crossed the room towards them. His face was stoic and all business which honestly suited Harry just fine. He hated the jovial small talk that Greengrass had tried to display during their meeting at St. Mungo’s. It all felt fake and forced.  
  
“Unspeakable Greengrass, this is my partner and Deputy Head, Ron Weasley,” Harry introduced.  
  
Ron, who stood like a lighthouse over the other two men, stretched out a freckly hand towards the older man. They shook briefly and exchanged pleasantries. Harry could hear the annoyance lacing Ron’s words but chose to ignore it.  
  
“I have a dossier on the Unspeakable that was unfortunately killed,” Greengrass stated.  
  
He pulled out a file from the inside of his robes and held it out to Harry. He took it with a tight smile and opened it up to see a picture of the man smiling. He was tan in the picture with his black hair slightly longer. His name was Preston Burke, age thirty-seven, Senior Unspeakable. Harry frowned when he saw a bunch of black lines that had redacted a lot of the information.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Darby raise her camera to snap a picture of the three of them. Her flash was off. She quickly maneuvered the camera down to the body on the floor and the flash was back on to take more pictures of the crime scene.  
  
“Half of the dossier is redacted,” Harry said with annoyance.  
  
“Yes, well, we research some very sensitive topics, Auror Potter, and redaction is a common occurrence in our files.”  
  
“While I appreciate the need for some confidentiality in our areas of expertise, this is a murder investigation. One of your employees was murdered right outside of the Veil of Death with some odd sigil on the floor. I give you my word that only Auror Weasley and I will be privy to the redacted information,” Harry said.  
  
“I simply can’t indulge you, Auror Potter.”  
  
“Can’t or won’t?” pressed Ron. “The way I see it, your days as department head are already numbered. I mean, you have employees being murdered in your department on Ministry grounds. That doesn’t invoke confidence now does it? Morale a little low today?”  
  
“We all have a boss, Unspeakable Greengrass,” Harry continued. “I _will_ go over your head.”  
  
“I have no doubt that you would find it prudent to go over my head, Auror Potter. Alas, I am not breaking departmental protocol. The redacted information is not relevant to the death. It could have been anybody who entered the department and killed Unspeakable Burke. It’s a tragedy and my heart goes out to his family, but the work we do is extremely sensitive and could be disastrous in the wrong hands.”  
  
“Was Burke working on your little experiment with the Veil that pulled out Sirius Black?” questioned Harry blankly.  
  
“I cannot discuss the work we do within the department. It is all labeled as classified.”  
  
“So, you are going to be uncooperative?” inquired Ron.  
  
“I gave you Unspeakable Burke’s dossier. I am willing to answer any question you may have that does not compromise the department in any way.”  
  
“It’s a little fishy, isn’t it? You pull someone out of the Veil and, a few days later, an Unspeakable turns up dead right in the Death Chamber.”  
  
“Auror Weasley, I believe this is what they would call a coincidence. I do not believe these two instances are related.”  
  
“Have you ever seen that sigil before?” questioned Harry as he pointed to the blood on the floor.  
  
“Never.”  
  
“Alright, well, the evidence team should be down here shortly and then we can give you your department back,” Harry said briskly. “I’ll let you know if we have any further questions.”  
  
Five hours later, the two Aurors found themselves holed up in Harry’s office. Hermione stopped by with Chinese takeout upon their request for lunch. Ron leaned back in his chair, his long legs propped up on his best mate’s desk. His head was tilted back and he was dangling noodles from his chopsticks higher than what was considered appropriate. Hermione rolled her eyes as she pushed around her rice as she stared at the crime scene photos of the symbol on the floor. Darby had developed the pictures quickly upon request.  
  
“Do you recognize it?” questioned Harry as his food lay untouched in front of him.  
  
“No,” she whispered with a tint of fascination. “It’s nothing that I’ve seen in Ancient Runes, I don’t think. I can break out my old textbooks tonight. Can I take a copy of a picture?”  
  
“Technically, no, I can’t allow you to have a copy. If a copy would accidently find its way into your bag or say you were looking for something in Ron’s briefcase and stumbled across it, there’s not much I could do,” Harry said nonchalantly.   
  
Ron began slurping a noodle which made Harry throw him a disgusted look. Hermione huffed as she flipped through the photos in interest. Harry couldn’t remember a time when they had drawn Hermione into a case like this. It was extremely unprofessional and against protocol, but he didn’t really care at the moment. He wasn’t thinking straight as the case was highly personal to him. Hermione was always better at separating her emotions from the task at hand.  
  
“Honestly, Ron, how can you eat like that while we’re looking at a dead body?” hissed Hermione.  
  
“I’m a bloody Auror. I see that shite all the time. You become numb to it after a while,” he said as he looked over at one of the pictures before pointing a chopstick at her. “I reckon it was an enchanted spoon that did him in.”  
  
Harry snorted, leaning back in his chair. Ron grinned like mad at his inside joke that Hermione was not privy to. Hermione, bless her, ignored the comment all together. It had been an adjustment, but she had gotten use to their inside jokes that she was no longer a part of.   
  
“Take this home tonight, Ron,” Hermione said as she shoved three pictures of the sigil into his lap. “I’ll look at some of the more obscure ruins.”  
  
“Don’t you miss this, Hermione? Us trying to solve a mystery together. It’s not too late to join the Aurors. Harry would let you join in a heartbeat.”  
  
“I have no interest in being an Auror. I’m writing groundbreaking legislation that could really benefit people. We’re so close to having some decent equality laws be enacted within the next year.”  
  
“Which, by the way, don’t let it slip that you’re helping us out with this investigation,” Harry spoke up as he popped a piece of chicken in his mouth. “I know you know that, but I have to say it. Ron and I would face a whole investigation and it would be a mess.”  
  
“I know, Harry,” she said with a sigh. “You’re not going to get anything out of Greengrass. Why don’t you call in some Unspeakables for a chat? I suggest starting with McLaggen.”  
  
“Ugh, bloody hell, Hermione. The last thing I want to do is question a dunderhead like McLaggen,” Ron said as he dropped a spicy noodle on his Auror robes. “Bugger.”  
  
“Do you think McLaggen would be as loose lipped with us?” questioned Harry. “He doesn’t exactly like us.”  
  
“It’s worth a shot,” shrugged Hermione. “I’d probably question him alone if I were you, Harry. Ron lacks the… tact needed for someone like McLaggen. He likes to be complimented. The more you make him feel like he’s important and amazing, the more likely he is to talk.”  
  
That was how Harry found himself sitting in an interrogation room with Cormac _bloody_ McLaggen a mere two hours later. He had set Ron up in an interrogation room next door with another Unspeakable so it didn’t seem too suspicious. He had Proudfoot setting up a schedule for interviews of all other Unspeakables for the following day.  
  
McLaggen was just as irritating as Harry remembered him from school. He was lounging back in his chair, one ankle resting on his knee, his hands behind his head, a stupid smile gracing his face. Harry bit down his annoyance and blinked at the man in front of him.  
  
“Cormac,” Harry tried to sound pleasant, at ease, a fake smile on his face.  
  
“Harry Potter, it’s good to see you again, mate! I heard you married Ginny Weasley and have like six kids now. Merlin, she must be good in the sack!” McLaggen said and had the gull to wink at him.  
  
Harry sighed heavily and crushed the undeniable urge he had to punch McLaggen in the jaw. He kept the fake smile on his face. Merlin, he hoped he could get through the interview without any violence. Ron being in a separate interrogation was a smart idea. He feared Ron would have already reacted negatively to the man.  
  
“We have four kids,” Harry said coolly.   
  
“I can’t find a good girl to settle down with myself. When the world is your oyster, it’s hard to imagine having to go home to the same girl every night and the prospect of kids… Merlin, just _Avada Kedavra_ me!”  
  
Harry’s thumb and forefinger pushed up his glasses so that he could squeeze the bridge of his nose. Tightly. He sighed again and tried to find his happy place.  
  
“Unspeakable Greengrass told me that there were experiments being conducted on the Veil of Death. Were you or Unspeakable Burke involved in those experiments?”  
  
“Experiments? What are you talking about? We’re not allowed to touch the Veil or do anything with the Veil. It’s purely observational.”  
  
Harry removed his hand and allowed his glasses to fall back on his nose. He looked up at McLaggen who seemed perfectly puzzled by the statement. The cocky smile had dropped from his face.  
  
“What exactly do you do with the Veil, then? What observational things do you do?”  
  
“Well, we _observe_ it, Harry. We look at it and see if the curtain is moving or not. We listen for voices. We record how we feel. Honestly, it’s a bunch of shite. I’ve never experienced anything in that supposed Death Chamber. Do you know how many hours I’ve spent standing there and being bored out of my bloody mind because nothing happens?”  
  
“So, there’s never been an attempt to pull anyone out from beyond the Veil?” inquired Harry as he sat up a little straighter.  
  
“No, who has told you that? I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything like that.”  
  
Harry frowned. It didn’t make sense. Why would Greengrass admit to experiments being done but McLaggen seem oblivious to it all? He didn’t exactly know how the Department of Mysteries operated, but he doubted that McLaggen would be completely in the dark about what was happening. Harry knew, for a fact, that gossip spread like wildfire around the Auror Department. People were always in each other’s business, gossip around the water cooler was exasperating, and people did not shy away from butting at every opportunity.  
  
“Has there been any interest amongst the Veil by anyone in the department? Someone who seems particularly interested with the Veil or experienced something noteworthy?”  
  
“Well, Quinton Greengrass is always volunteering for Death Chamber duty. I know I’ve pawned quite a few of my sessions off to him.”  
  
“Quinton Greengrass? Any relation to Gareth Greengrass?”   
  
“Yeah, his grandson. He’s the eldest of three. Quinton is, I think, five years older than me. Then, there’s Daphne who was a year below me. She was in your year! Merlin, she was good looking for a Slytherin. The arse on that girl was especially fine. Then, there was Astoria who is even younger. Maybe four years below me? She was too young for me to look at while at Hogwarts. Hear she married Draco Malfoy.”  
  
Harry stilled and adjusted the ages of the Greengrass siblings in his head. Quinton Greengrass would have been six years older than him so that made sense why he knew nothing about him.  
  
“Did Quinton Greengrass ever discuss what he experienced in the Death Chamber?” questioned Harry.  
  
“Uh, yeah, a little. Heard him talking to someone else about it. He said he’d hear his mum in the Death Chamber. I guess she died when they were kids. Some kind of blood curse or something. I’m not exactly sure. I’m sure it’s all psychosomatic, isn’t it? Someone tells you that there’s a Veil of Death and, all of a sudden, you hear your dead mum?” McLaggen snorted. “I mean, I don’t know how he passed the psych eval we had to go through if he’s talking to his dead mum on the job.”  
  
“You are sure that you didn’t hear about someone being pulled from the Veil?” questioned Harry one last time.  
  
“Yeah, I’m sure if we pulled someone from the Veil of Death, it would be all the rage in the department,” McLaggen grinned. “Someone is trying to take the piss out of you.”  
  
Harry rubbed his chin and absentmindedly nodded his head in agreement. McLaggen grinned, seemingly much more at ease, and asked him if Ginny could hook him up with any of her old Harpies teammates.   
  


* * *

  
Harry didn’t get home until after dinner that night. The kids were already sprawled around the living room. Ginny was brushing out Lily’s hair and plaiting it. Al, James, and Teddy were huddled around Sirius on the sofa as he told some story about turning the corridor outside of the Transfiguration classroom into an ice-skating rink right before Christmas break in his sixth year. Harry stilled briefly in the doorway, listening to his family talk excitedly.   
  
He dropped his briefcase down against the wall silently. Nobody seemed to notice him standing there. He drank in the scene greedily. His perfect wife laughing at the babbling of their two-year-old who was the spitting image of her mother. His two sons who looked so eerily like him — Al could have passed for him at the age of four — giggling madly at the story. Teddy, who had donned black hair with the two younger boys, was all smiles and eagerly asking more questions.   
  
“I saved a plate for you,” Ginny’s voice rang as the mass of heads turned towards him.  
  
He was greeted by various voices talking over one another to bid their hellos.  
  
“I’ll eat later,” he replied. “I’m fine for now.”  
  
He grinned and made his way into the living room. He loosened his tie as he sank down into an armchair by the fireplace. As soon as Lily’s plaits were finished, she jumped off the sofa and went running to sit in his lap. He cuddled the girl close to his chest. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes and listened to the chatter in the room.  
  
“Sirius, can I tell you something?” James’ voice was filled with excitement.   
  
“What?” Sirius replied, amusement lacing the single syllable.  
  
“Today, when we were at the Burrow, Teddy and I pulled a prank! Teddy likes to pull pranks with me. We found a big spider in the back garden and I held it in my hand and I chased Rosie around the backyard and she was screaming so much and she _really_ hates spiders!”  
  
“That’s not a prank, James, that’s just you being a prat,” Teddy commented though his tone was light.  
  
“Who is Rosie?” inquired Sirius.  
  
“Rosie’s our cousin. There’s her and Hugo. They’re Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s kids,” James supplied.   
  
“James, you know Rose is afraid of spiders. That wasn’t very nice,” Ginny’s scolded. “It’s hardly a prank.”   
  
“Do you wanna go to Friday night dinner tomorrow at the Burrow?” James, apparently ignoring his mother, asked sweetly. “Mum and Dad said we couldn’t go because you were going to be here but if you wanted to go then we could probably go.”  
  
Harry opened his eyes at the question. His gaze flickered to his godfather who looked slightly uncomfortable yet had a soft smile on his face. He seemed hesitate but clearly did not want to upset the small child.  
  
“Sirius, you don’t have to go,” Ginny said kindly. “There’s a lot more people now in the family.”  
  
“No, that’s fine. I can go. We can all go. I don’t want you missing it on my account,” he replied with uncertainty in his voice. “So, give me the run down on everyone.”  
  
“Well, Ron and Hermione are married with two kids, as you just heard,” Ginny started. “Then, George is married to Angelina Johnson. She used to play Quidditch with Harry at school. They have two kids, Fred and Roxanne. Then, Percy, you never met him, he married a girl named Audrey and have two kids, Molly and Lucy. Charlie - I don’t think you ever met him - he never married but I don’t think he’ll be there tomorrow. He rarely comes. Bill married Fleur Delacour. She was the Beauxbatons champion. They have three kids, Victoire, Dominique, and Louis.”  
  
“What about Fred?” inquired Sirius.  
  
Ginny paled instantly at the name and looked over at Harry. He swallowed. He knew she could not say the words out loud. She was never able to. Her melancholy over her brother’s death had lessened over the years especially when little Fred Junior came around. The boy made the pain fade slightly.   
  
“Fred died during the war,” Harry said thickly. “It was during the final battle.”  
  
“Oh…” Sirius said with a frown.   
  
“Bedtime,” Ginny said suddenly, hopping up from the couch. “Come on, you lot, let’s go.”  
  
Harry stood up, swinging Lily on his hip. Al hung on Sirius and begged to be carried. Sirius obliged and held the boy on his hip, mimicking exactly what Harry was doing with his youngest. Doubt shown in the older man’s eyes as he ambled forward out of the living room and towards the stairs.  
  
Ginny and Sirius took care of the boys while Harry went to the bathroom with Lily. He helped her brush her teeth, took out the bow from her hair carefully, and attempted to get her to go to the bathroom but failed miserably. He helped her change from her sundress into her poofy nightgown that Harry highly doubted was actually a nightgown. He suspected that Ginny had given in and allowed the dress to be considered a nightgown to avoid a temper tantrum and it just stuck. He helped her climb into bed, listened to her babble about something he couldn’t quite understand, kissed her on her forehead, and handed her a purple stuffed dragon.  
  
He exited his daughter’s room just in time to see the three boys bounding into Teddy’s room like a herd of hippogriffs. They were chatting loudly, whooping, and carrying on in their pajamas. Harry inched closer and saw Sirius leaning against the doorjamb and hovered behind him to peer into the room. All three boys were settling into Teddy’s large bed as Ginny gave them a stern talking to about sleeping and not carrying on all night. He supposed Teddy must have had more fun in their sleepover the night before than he had initially let on.  
  
Harry and Sirius moved out of the door to allow Ginny to come through and softly close it. Her hand reached up and ran down Harry’s arm, a soft yet tired smile gracing her features.  
  
“Come on, I’ll heat up your dinner,” she said.  
  
The three of them made their way down to the kitchen. Harry and Sirius sat side by side at the kitchen table while Ginny heated up a tin foil-covered plate with her wand. Harry pushed his glasses up, rubbing his eyes with his fingers, trying to let go of the stress and confusion of the day. He felt like his mind was always on work. It was even worse when he was on a big case. He lived and breathed his work in a way that garnered him silent sneers from Ginny. She never said anything though and always seemed to understand the moods caused by his work.  
  
She sat the plate in front of him before sitting across from him. He looked up at her, gave her a small thanks, before he pushed round the contents of his chicken pie. Three butterbeers came floating through the air and landed in the middle of the table. Ginny and Sirius immediately grabbed a bottle and twisted their caps off.  
  
“So, who died?” inquired Ginny dully.  
  
Somehow, he didn’t think murder should be such a common and casual conversation at the dinner table. Except, over the years, Harry had often spilt details out to his wife that probably should never leave the Auror Department. Like most married couples, the secrecy of work seemed to be breached more often than it should.  
  
“Preston Burke. He had already left Hogwarts before we got there,” Harry said casually. “He was an Unspeakable.”  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“Throat was slit. Some weird sigil was painted on the floor in his blood,” Harry commented as he took a bite of his food. “Something fishy is definitely going on.”  
  
“What makes you say that?”  
  
“You remember Cormac McLaggen?” inquired Harry.  
  
“How can one forget that dolt?” she asked with a snort as she turned her attention to Sirius. “In Harry’s sixth year, McLaggen sent a Bludger at Harry and knocked him off his broom. Cracked his skull open. He’s a complete moron.”  
  
“He cracked your skull open?” questioned Sirius. “Was he a Slytherin?”  
  
“No, he was our own bloody teammate,” Ginny supplied.  
  
“Anyways, McLaggen’s an Unspeakable now,” Harry said.   
  
“How? He repeated his seventh year.”  
  
Harry brought up his hand and rubbed his thumb along his fingers to indicate he had money. Ginny only scowled, her eyes rolling dramatically as she took a swing of her beer.  
  
“Greengrass said in the hospital that they had done an experiment on the Veil and that’s how they pulled Sirius out. McLaggen has no idea what I was talking about. He said they only observe the Veil and record their observations.”  
  
“Maybe this McLaggen git wasn’t on the team that was doing the experiment. Maybe he honestly has no idea anything was done,” Sirius suggested.   
  
“I considered that, but then McLaggen told me that Greengrass’ grandson works at the department as well. Quinton Greengrass would have been a seventh year when I was in my first year. His sisters are Daphne and Astoria. They were all Slytherins. Apparently, he likes to take people’s Death Chamber shifts.”  
  
Harry reached out and twisted the cap off his own butterbeer. Ginny was looking thoughtful. He dared a glance over at Sirius who was expressionless and was leaning back in his chair with his hands clenched around the neck of his bottle.   
  
“Why is Quinton Greengrass taking more shifts in the Death Chamber?” questioned Ginny.  
  
“Apparently, according to McLaggen so take this with a grain of salt, his mother died from some blood curse and he often hears her in the Death Chamber.”  
  
“Blood curse? Are you talking about Albertine Greengrass?” inquired Sirius suddenly. “Maiden name was Selwyn?”  
  
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Harry added. “Why? Do you know her?”  
  
“I mean, I know _of_ her. She’s a pureblood and part of a Sacred Twenty-Eight family,” Sirius said with a shrug. “It’s rumored that the Selwyn woman were cursed in the late 1800s with a blood curse that has been slowly wearing off over the years. Some women seem to be unaffected while others are cursed to the fate.”  
  
“What kind of blood curse?” inquired Harry as his fork lingered in midair. “Why were they cursed?”  
  
“Honestly, I think it was something to do with a love triangle. A Selwyn man cheated on his wife and the wife murdered the mistress. Then, the mistress’ family placed a blood curse on any female who married into the Selwyn line or were an offspring of the family. They get violently sick, their bodies and beauty wasting away until they eventually drop dead.”  
  
“Why do you _know_ this?” questioned Ginny.  
  
“My charming mother and my aunt loved to gossip about all the pureblood families. Apparently, they thought the Selwyns should have been kicked out of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and forbade any of my cousins from marrying into the line in fear they and their potential daughters would be cursed,” Sirius said dryly. “It was all the rage during our weekly family dinners.”  
  
Harry’s brow furrowed as he thought about the information on the Greengrass/Selwyn family. Perhaps, he could get past Quinton Greengrass pulling Sirius out of the Veil by accident because he was attempting to reach his mother. It made sense why Gareth Greengrass was so tight lipped about everything and why he assigned Malfoy as the Healer on record. What didn’t make sense was why Preston Burke was found murdered in the Death Chamber. The two didn’t seem to have a connection.  
  
“Okay, so what’s the connection?” Harry said out loud even though he didn’t expect an answer. “Greengrass is obsessed with the Veil because he hears his dead mother. Somehow, Sirius gets pulled out of the Veil very much alive. Then, a dead Unspeakable shows up.”  
  
“Maybe there is no connection between Greengrass, Sirius, and the dead Unspeakable,” suggested Ginny.  
  
“There’s at least some connection between Sirius and the dead Unspeakable,” Harry said thoughtfully. “Something tells me both Gareth and Quinton Greengrass are somehow involved in all of this.”  
  
“You’re trusting McLaggen an awful lot,” Ginny commented.  
  
“Well, Proudfoot was scheduling interviews for all the Unspeakables tomorrow. I’ll just have to make sure I get Greengrass and see if I can figure anything out.”  
  
The sigil on the floor of the Department of Mysteries sprang to his mind. His gaze flittered towards Sirius before resting on Ginny. She looked tired with large bags residing under her eyes. Her skin looked a tad paler than normal. She caught him looking at her and gave him a wide grin that did not reach her eyes. For the first time since he called her to the hospital and showed her Sirius, he wandered if she wasn’t dealing with everything as well as he thought.  
  
She had been so happy, so effortless in the planning of what they were going to do. She didn’t seem fazed or bothered by the fact that a dead man was back in their lives. He had been grateful, especially since he felt like he was in a daze half the time he looked at his godfather. Even though Sirius was sitting next to him, talking to him, it still didn’t feel quite real that the man was back.  
  
“Gins, can you grab my briefcase from the living room, please?” he asked her softly.  
  
“Yeah, sure.”  
  
She pushed her chair back from the table and strolled out of the kitchen. Harry pushed the contents of his dinner around with his fork. He could feel Sirius’ eyes on him, boring into him with an intensity.   
  
“Are you alright?” Sirius questioned.  
  
“I’m fine,” Harry said automatically.  
  
“You just seem… distant, I guess.”  
  
Harry turned to look at him, his heart stilling in his chest. How could he explain to Sirius that he was just waiting for him to disappear again? How he had been rattled when he realized just how little he knew about his godfather when given the hospital forms? Harry had been alone most of his life and trusted nobody to help him. He never had a parental figure except for the two short years Sirius had tried to fill that role before he died. Even then, sometimes, Harry wondered if Sirius had seen him as a son or a replacement for James. The accusations had certainly been thrown around like Fiendfrye while they stayed at Grimmauld Place.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Harry said miserably. “I just… I’m having a hard time… it’s…”   
  
He couldn’t find the words. He was never good at expressing his emotions. It was something that Ginny always understood and never pushed him on. Anytime he was at a loss for words, Ginny would just pull him into an embrace and run her fingers through his hair. They would just sit in silence until they both felt better about the situation. The words were always left unsaid. She just understood him in a way nobody else ever had.  
  
“I don’t have to stay here, Harry, if it’s too much.”  
  
“What? No, that’s stupid. You should stay here,” he said instantly, suddenly feeling more confident yet slightly guilty.  
  
“I get this is hard. Merlin, trust me, I keep waiting to wake up in Grimmauld Place. Seeing you as an adult is baffling at times. I look at you and still see that scrawny fifteen-year-old flash in front of my eyes. Then, I blink. You’re suddenly a lot taller and not so scrawny,” Sirius said in a despondent voice. “I watch as you look at Ginny in the same way James used to look at Lily. I see what a great father you are to your kids. You know, Teddy doesn’t stop talking about you. I’ll tell him something about Remus or James and he’ll bring the conversation back to you. You are a way better godfather than I ever was. You are the kind of godfather I hoped I would be.”  
  
“Sirius…”  
  
“I fucked up, Harry. I ruined your childhood. I wasn’t there for you after your parents died and I wasn’t there for you like I should have been when I got out of prison.”  
  
“It’s not your fault my childhood sucked,” Harry said warily. “I don’t blame you for switching Secret Keepers. You were trying to outsmart Voldemort.”  
  
“It’s not that. I had a chance to fix that. I was there that night your parents died, Harry. I went to Godric’s Hollow because I knew something wasn’t right. Hagrid got there first. He had you in his arms. You were crying for me the moment you laid eyes on me. I didn’t take you. I didn’t fight Hagrid for you. I just gave Hagrid my bike and said goodbye. What kind of godfather does that?”  
  
Harry stilled. He remembered thinking during the war about being a godfather to Teddy, about how reckless he was in his pursuit to finish off Voldemort. Except, he tried to convince himself that the circumstances were different. He _had_ to be the one to finish Voldemort. He knew for a while, although unable to admit it to himself or anyone else, that he had been a Horcrux. He couldn’t even pinpoint when the terrifying thought had filtered in his mind because he had brushed it aside so quickly out of fear and then proceeded to bury it deep within his mind.  
  
After the war, when Andromeda had dumped Teddy in his arms the day after final battle, he vowed things would be different. A few months later, when she asked him to take full custody of Teddy, he had jumped on the idea without a second thought. It didn’t matter that he had only been eighteen at the time, had just entered the Auror training program, and was renovating Grimmauld Place to live in. He had taken his godson without hesitation.  
  
“You’re here now,” Harry said in a small voice that sounded almost childlike in his head.  
  
“I’m trying to be,” Sirius said hoarsely. “Look, I’ll go to the Mind Healer next week, alright? We can work on the awkwardness between us. It’s just so bloody hard not to think of you as fifteen still. I’m just trying to wrap my brain around everything. I’d really like us to have a proper godfather and godson relationship. I want to have a good relationship with your wife. I want to be there for your kids.”  
  
Before he could stop himself, he launched himself towards Sirius. His arms wrapped around the man’s neck as he buried his face into his shoulder. His godfather’s arms slowly wrapped around his back.   
  
Harry could count the number of times he had cried in the past fifteen years, because he rarely ever cried. He remembered crying after Cedric had died when Mrs. Weasley hugged him and told him it wasn’t his fault. He cried after Sirius had fallen beyond the Veil, the grief nearly too much to bear. He remembered holding the damned fake locket and crying after Dumbledore’s death. Then, again, at Godric’s Hollow at his parents’ graves. It was always tied to misery, to death, until his children came along.   
  
He remembered crying as he held Teddy for the first time. He remembered crying when each one of his children was placed in his arms — all slimy with their faces scrunched up. He could remember watching as Ginny glided down the aisle in white. He had felt the prickling of tears then too but somehow managed to keep them at bay.  
  
This time, though, felt different. The tears were coming out in relentless waves. He could feel his whole body shaking. He could feel Sirius tighten his grip on him. For some reason, the small gesture made it worse and he felt a second surge of tears emerge from his eyes. It had been something he wanted his whole life… a father, a parent. He felt like, at the age of twenty-nine, he was finally going to have that wish be granted. He just hoped that it lasted this time unlike the previous time.  
  
He didn’t know how long they had stayed in the embrace. He was only vaguely aware that Ginny had never came back with his briefcase, but Harry hardly cared. He had meant to show Sirius the sigil and see if he recognized it. That seemed so insignificant at that moment though. When they finally pulled back, Harry noted the bloodshot eyes of his godfather. He felt slightly less silly about his breakdown.  
  
Wordlessly, they both got up to make their way to bed. Harry noticed his briefcase sitting by the kitchen door as they walked out of the room. They bid each other goodnight in the upstairs hallway. Sirius pulled him in a brief side hug before disappearing into Al’s room. He stood in the hallway for a few moments before he retreated to his own room.  
  
Ginny was sitting up in bed, her knees bent, with a book propped up against her thighs. She looked up at him when he entered and offered a warm smile. He changed out of his work clothes quickly, throwing them into a heap on the floor, before crawling into bed. Ginny tossed her book onto the bedside table and eased down until she was lying next to him. Her fingers brushed against his knuckles and his hand clasped around hers.  
  
“I know it’s a lot,” she whispered. “I know it’s not easy, but things are rarely easy when they are worth it.”  
  
“It shouldn’t be this hard though. I mean, when I was a kid, it was so easy to talk to Sirius and involve him in my life. I don’t understand why it’s more difficult now.”  
  
“It’s because you thought you lost him. You thought you watched him die. He’s been gone for fifteen years, Harry, and he hasn’t aged a day in those years. Of course, it’s not going to be easy,” Ginny said gently as she moved closer to him to rest her head on his shoulder. “Not to mention, you’re a completely different person than you were all those years ago. You were moody and closed off and depressed. The world was caving in on you from all sides. You didn’t know who you could trust and were stumbling along not knowing what you were doing. Now, you’re this confident man who knows true happiness and doesn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders.”  
  
He let her words seep into him. He was overly confident now. He had been called an arrogant arse quite a few times at work by Robards or other senior Aurors who felt comfortable enough around him. He felt a tremendous amount of pressure and stress at work, but it all seemed like normal life stresses. It didn’t feel suffocating like it had during the war. It was far easier to manage and, mostly, not allow it trickle into his home life too much. His children brought him an indescribable amount of happiness. He only had to look at one of them and he found himself grinning like a fool.  
  
“I keep waiting for him to drop dead or disappear,” he admitted with a heavy sigh.   
  
“I can relate to that sentiment,” she relied. “It doesn’t feel real. We had lunch together today. I felt like a kid again sitting in Grimmauld Place. It was so… bizarre. I sort of wished he had aged normally. It probably wouldn’t be as much of a shock if he had, but it’s probably for the best he didn’t age.”  
  
“Why do you say that?”  
  
“Well, let’s see, he’d be in his fifties now, wouldn’t he? It would have been even harder for him to process everything if he had aged, I would think.”  
  
“Merlin, if my parents were still alive, they would have been in their mid-forties when James was born. That’s young for grandparents, isn’t it?”  
  
“Seems young,” Ginny replied. “Your parents were young when they had you and we were pretty young too. I mean, I think we had a family so early mainly because of Teddy. We both wanted to give him siblings and not have the age gap be too massive.”  
  
“What do you think Sirius would be to the kids? Do you think he’d want to be like a grandparent to them?” Harry asked with uncertainty lacing his words.  
  
“A grandparent at thirty-six is definitely young,” she said thoughtfully. “I think you have to let him work that out with the kids. They call him Sirius right now. I don’t really think they’ve thought through what they want to be to one another yet. I’m not sure that will come right away. It might take some time for them all to adjust to one another and figure it all out. It will probably be different for Teddy versus the other kids. Teddy sees him as a link to his dad because they were friends. I highly doubt Teddy will view him as anything akin to a grandfather. Merlin, that sounds so weird to say. Anyways, our kids might. He’s your godfather, your parent figure. They’re young enough that they may associate him in the role of grandfather.”  
  
“I don’t want to push anything to make anyone uncomfortable.”  
  
“Well, no, we can’t do that. I wouldn’t say anything to anyone. See how their relationship with Sirius progresses. They seem like they all like each other so far.”  
  
Harry turned his head and felt her hair tickling his face. He breathed in deeply and felt a wave of calm wash over him. All the problems from the day could wait until the morning. He turned on his side, his hand reached up to cup Ginny’s face. She smiled softly up at him. Leaning down, he brushed his lips against hers. The muscles in his shoulders eased. He knew that she would be by his side to figure everything out together.


	4. The Burrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Arnel for always looking over my chapters! Please, leave a comment if you're enjoying.

**"Cheating Death"**

**"Chapter Four: The Burrow"**

  
  
Harry sat in interrogation room number two with a heavily redacted dossier in front of him. His eyes scanned the information lazily. His right hand was unconsciously rubbing his scar while his left hand flipped through the pages of black bars. Ron lounged next to him, leaning back in the chair until it balanced on its hind legs.  
  
They had been interviewing employees of the Department of Mysteries all morning separately. Nobody knew anything specific about Burke, the sigil, or Sirius Black. Harry personally interviewed the two Unspeakables who had found Sirius in the Death Chamber. Both claimed not to know who he was or how he got there. They assumed Sirius had broken into the department but hadn't the faintest idea why. They had found him sprawled face up on the dais, still Stunned, and revived him. Upon seeing how disoriented he was, they immediately had him transported to St. Mungo's and filed a report on the incident.  
  
Ron and Harry holed themselves up in Harry's office for lunch as they discussed their morning interviews. Ron said they were mind-numbingly boring. There were no leads, no new information. Everything was rather unremarkable about the interviews. Harry agreed. He had gotten nothing worthwhile in his interviews either. After lunch, Harry had Ron push back his interviews to sit in with him during the meeting with Quinton Greengrass. It was a weak lead but the only one they had in the case.  
  
The door creaked open behind him. Harry turned around to see a short, muscular men step in. His dark hair was swept to one side. A few days stubble graced his cheeks. He looked pale and cold, dark eyes darted around the room. Standing up, Harry extended a hand with a tight smile.  
  
"Unspeakable Greengrass, I'm Auror Potter. This is Auror Weasley. It's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
Greengrass accepted the handshake before turning to Ron and accepting his greeting as well. His lip was drawn in a thin line, his face void of any emotion. He rounded the table and sat down across from them. Lacing his fingers together, he sat his hands on the table and stared at the two Aurors as they retook their seats.  
  
"As you know, Unspeakable Burke was found murdered in the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries," Harry started. "We are interviewing all employees to see if they have heard or seen anything suspicious in the last few days."  
  
"Not that I can recall. As a Senior Unspeakable, I do not have to work the graveyard shifts anymore, so I was not on duty the night Unspeakable Burke passed away," Greengrass said in a professional, emotionless tone.  
  
"We don't have such rewards in the Auror Department," Harry replied lightly. "I fear the more senior you get, the more late nights and graveyard shifts one works."  
  
"Was Unspeakable Burke working the graveyard shift? He was a Senior Unspeakable. I believe you two were in the same training year. You both left Hogwarts the same year," Ron commented.  
  
"Preston and I did attend Hogwarts together. We, indeed, did train together for the Unspeakable position. He should not have been working the graveyard shift being so senior."  
  
"So, you would say it was odd that Unspeakable Burke was at the Ministry the night he was murdered?" inquired Harry. "Is there any reason you can think of why he would be in the department late at night?"  
  
"I haven't the faintest idea," Greengrass responded. "It is extremely odd for him to be in the department so late."  
  
Greengrass sat calmly, unrattled by the conversation. He was stony-faced like every other Unspeakable they had come across in their interviews — save for Cormac McLaggen who was in a league of his own.  
  
"I've heard from quite a few Unspeakables that you like to pick up shifts in the Death Chamber," Harry continued. "Is there any particular reason?"  
  
"Am I under suspicion of something?"  
  
"No, not at all," Harry lied easily. "Considering the murder took place in the Death Chamber, I'm just trying to figure out if you saw or heard anything unusual since you've been spending more time there than usual."  
  
"If you must know, my sister is sick. It's been hard on the whole family. I enjoy the slow, quiet space of the Death Chamber lately. I've been distracted on my normal assignment," Greengrass replied as he plopped his folded hands in his lap.  
  
"I'm sorry to hear about your sister," Harry said sincerely. "Is it Daphne? She was in the same year as us at Hogwarts."  
  
"No, it's Astoria. She's the youngest."  
  
"I don't think I ever met her," Harry continued. "I hope it is not too serious."  
  
"Unfortunately, she will only get progressively worse. It's a slow, agonizing death. Our mother died of the same thing, so it is bringing up very unpleasant memories. It's been very hard to concentrate at work. It's why I've sought refuge in, perhaps, the easiest room in the department lately."  
  
"What exactly is done in the Death Chamber?" Harry pressed.  
  
"We observe the Veil and note any changes to it."  
  
"What sort of changes?"  
  
"We are to note if there are any movement, noises, temperature changes. Things like that."  
  
"Has there been any unusual changes to the Veil as of late?" questioned Ron.  
  
"Not that I have seen," Greengrass answered, his jaw tightening slightly.  
  
"Besides the murder the other night in the Death Chamber, there was a man who appeared in there earlier in the week. Two Unspeakables found him Stunned on the dais in front of the Veil. They took him immediately to St. Mungo's and assumed it was a break in. Do you know anything about that?" Harry asked.  
  
Greengrass blinked with his face still void of emotion. He stared at Harry, his cold eyes boring into him. Harry held the gaze as he watched Greengrass' face closely. He waited for the slightest twitch, the slightest change in his eyes, anything that would betray his stoic posture for even a moment.  
  
"I heard whispers of the break in but I know nothing more than that."  
  
"What if we told you it wasn't a break in?" Ron probed. "From what we understand, the man who was found in the department has been classified as dead for the past fifteen years. That man, fifteen years ago, fell through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries very much alive. Your own father has told us that he came out of the Veil due to an experiment."  
  
"I am not privy to any experiments being done on the Veil," Greengrass spoke quietly. "I am not assigned to the Death Chamber. There are very few full time Unspeakables who study the Veil in a more in-depth capacity. I simply make observations, as every Unspeakable is asked to do, and hand my report in to a team of researchers."  
  
"Do you know who the full-time researchers are for the Death Chamber?" questioned Harry.  
  
"No, that is a question you would have to bring up to the head of the department. I merely hand in my reports to an assigned box in the main office."  
  
"The head of the department is your grandfather, isn't it?" inquired Ron. "Must be hard to have him as a boss."  
  
"My grandfather keeps things extremely professional at work," Greengrass commented with a slight sneer. "The Deputy Head is the one who gives me my assignments and my reviews. My grandfather stays out of the process and my work to avoid any claims of nepotism."  
  
"Does your grandfather pass out all assignments except for yours then?" Harry pushed.  
  
"No, it is between the Head Unspeakable and the Deputy Head Unspeakable. They both deal with assignments."  
  
"What assignment are you currently on right now?"  
  
"I am assigned to the Hall of Prophecies."  
  
Harry stilled. Leaning back in his chair, he allowed his eyes to flicker briefly to Ron. There was something about the whole case that just didn't settle right with Harry. He hated the Department of Mysteries. It brought nothing but unpleasant memories up in his mind.  
  
"Where was Burke assigned?" Ron took the lead.  
  
"With me in the Hall of Prophecies. We were good friends. I am… extremely sorry to hear what happened to him," Greengrass said as his gaze dropped to his hands in his lap. "I really hope you are able to find out who did this. Preston was an upstanding man. He was beloved by all in the department."  
  
Harry pulled out a photograph from a file on the table. It was of the sigil that had been painted in blood on the floor of the Death Chamber. He slid it across the table slowly. He watched as Greengrass looked up, his eyes glued to the picture. Harry leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.  
  
"Do you recognize that symbol?" Harry asked.  
  
"I've never seen it before," Greengrass responded a little too hastily for Harry's liking.  
  
"Why don't you turn the picture? See the different angles. Make sure nothing springs to mind," suggested Harry.  
  
Greengrass' eyes flickered up to Harry. The corners of his lips were twitching downwards before he reached out a shaky hand and rotated the picture slowly. His eyes locked on the image but he remained silent. Finally, after looking at it from all angles, he shoved it roughly across the table.  
  
"I've never seen it before," he snapped, his answer more confident and even the second time around. "I really need to get back to work. Are we nearly done here?"  
  
"Sure," Harry answered as he stared at the man in front of him. "If we have any more questions, we will contact you."  
  
Greengrass nodded briefly before pushing his chair back roughly. He swept out of the room. Ron let out a hollow laugh when the door slammed shut.  
  
"Obviously, that blood sigil rattled him. I was beginning to think we were pulling Snitches out of thin air up until that point," Ron commented as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.  
  
"He seemed tense through the whole interview," Harry added. "He kept his feelings at bay though until the picture."  
  
"What's next, boss?" Ron teased.  
  
Harry scowled at the nickname.  
  
"We dig into the background of Quinton Greengrass. I wonder if we can get a list of all the Unspeakables who work in the Hall of Prophecies to get a better picture of him at work. Then, do some digging into who his friends are outside of work."  
  
"Do we dig into the family? Gareth Greengrass might just explode. Not to mention, didn't Malfoy marry a Greengrass? I don't fancy talking to that berk again."  
  
"I have a feeling we're going to have to. I'd like to try to be inconspicuous as possible," Harry replied. "It seemed when I talked to Malfoy at the hospital that he wasn't that impressed with Gareth Greengrass."  
  
"How he became a Healer, I'll never understand. Could you imagine his bedside manner?"  
  
Harry didn't respond. His mind was preoccupied with what exactly Quinton Greengrass was attempting to do and why. How did Sirius fit into all of it? Was Sirius a mistake or was Sirius the target? The interview left him more uneasy than before.  
  


* * *

  
Harry walked into his home a few hours later to see Sirius sitting on the couch in the living room reading _Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump_ to Lily and Albus. James and Teddy were sitting on the floor playing Exploding Snap on the coffee table. Ginny was nowhere to be seen. Sirius looked up at him as he entered.  
  
"Where's Ginny?" questioned Harry.  
  
"She went up for a shower before we left for dinner. She left me in charge," Sirius replied with a smirk. "Everyone is still alive so I think I'm doing alright."  
  
"Well, I'm glad you judge your success by whether everyone is still breathing," Harry said with a grin. "Good job on that."  
  
"Daddy, we're reading _Babbity Rabbity_!" Al chirped with enthusiasm from the crook of Sirius' arm.  
  
"Yeah, only for the fourth time in a row," James chimed in as Teddy slammed a card down and easily got the match.  
  
"The children's version isn't nearly as much fun," Teddy commented with a frown. "They don't explode as quickly and it's more fun with a wand."  
  
"I haven't got one though, Teddy!" whined James. "I could borrow yours during my turn."  
  
"No!" Harry snapped. "Ted, don't you dare let him mess around with your wand. You're six, James."  
  
Harry gave his son a pointed look before he made his way up the stairs to change out of his work clothes before dinner. Ginny was nearly done getting ready as she was drying her hair with her wand. She looked back casually at him and offered him a grin.  
  
"How was work?"  
  
"Well, considering I spent all day in interrogation room number two… exciting."  
  
Crossing the room, he pecked Ginny on the cheek quickly before grabbing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from the dresser to change into.  
  
"No leads then?"  
  
"I have a funny feeling about Quinton Greengrass," Harry admitted as he shrugged out of his Auror robes and laid them neatly across the back of the winged armchair.  
  
"Do you think he was simply trying to bring his mum back to life? I mean, it sounds like she died of some horrible blood curse. Maybe, because magic can't bring people back from the dead, the only person he was able to pull out was Sirius who technically wasn't dead," supplied Ginny.  
  
"That's fine and dandy, but why is there a dead body now? Obviously, something else is going on besides trying to resurrect your dead mother."  
  
"So, it was just Quinton Greengrass then? It wasn't the department that pulled Sirius out?"  
  
"My guess, based off my interviews, it was an individual and Gareth Greengrass seemed to try to cover it up by claiming it was an _experiment_ at the hospital when I met with him. I'd wager that it was probably it was Greengrass junior because why would a departmental head cover for anybody else?"  
  
"To save face," Ginny suggested. "A rogue Unspeakable could do a lot of damage to the perception of the department and of the departmental head."  
  
"I don't know if I'd be lying to cover up some random employee's glaring mistake. I feel like I'd face more scrutiny and cause more damage that way."  
  
"No, I suppose you wouldn't."  
  
"How was your day?" questioned Harry, changing the subject away from work.  
  
He had finished getting ready at this point. Ginny was tying her hair up in a high ponytail. He leaned against her vanity, hands bracing behind him on the wood as he watched her.  
  
"I'm writing a profile piece on the newest Harpies Chaser. Georgia Hanes is on leave after getting pregnant so they've replaced her with some fresh-face out of Hogwarts, Belinda Bellini. I'm having a lot of fun thinking of some creative B alliteration," Ginny said cheerfully. "It's the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever written."  
  
"When does it come out?"  
  
"Probably next Friday. I have to turn it in by end of day Monday. Which reminds me, I have to go on the wireless now on Tuesday to discuss the shake up and Lily has her eye appointment at St. Mungo's. Can you take her?"  
  
"Yeah, I can. I'll just shift some things around in my schedule to do on Monday instead. It's not a big deal. I was going to see if I could get Sirius into a Mind Healer, so I'll see if I can get him in at the same time."  
  
"Well, I'm sure for Harry Potter, they'd clear their schedule to make you happy," Ginny teased as her foot reached out to gently knock with his calf.  
  
"How was Sirius today?"  
  
"It's hard to tell. Sometimes, he seems perfectly fine. He will be joking with me one minute before he gets very quiet and still. You can see he looks lost, like he's still not quite sure where he is or what happened," Ginny said with a sigh. "He had a weird episode today."  
  
"What do you mean a weird episode?"  
  
"Well, he's been sitting with me in the study while I've been writing my articles. He normally will read the paper or a book. He'll flip through some photo albums from when the kids were younger. Sometimes, he'll ask me questions about things from the past fifteen years or we will randomly talk about something. He went to make some tea for us," Ginny started with a frown. "He came back in with two cups. He sort of just stopped halfway to my desk. It was like he was almost in a trance or something. I tried talking to him but he didn't respond. He didn't move. It lasted a few minutes and then the cups of tea dropped to the floor. He snapped out of it and looked extremely confused. He said he didn't know what happened."  
  
Harry frowned deeply, his shoulders sagging forward. It was the first time something like that happened. His mind wandered to Malfoy's warning to watch him for anything odd. This definitely seemed to fall into that category.  
  
"We should definitely have people check up on him next week then," Harry commented. "I'll take off all of Tuesday. Take him and Lily to St. Mungo's and then work from home the rest of the day. We should figure out something for the rest of the week."  
  
"Send on owl to Andromeda tonight and see if she's free on Monday to keep an eye on him."  
  
"I've been meaning to do that," Harry admitted. "It's just been an overwhelming past few days."  
  
"We'll figure it out, Harry," Ginny said confidently as she rose to her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him into an embrace.  
  
At six that night, Harry stood next to the fireplace with the container of Floo Powder in his hands. Teddy and James were pushing one another. Teddy was hissing at the younger boy to be quiet while James motioned to something under his t-shirt. Al was bouncing up and down in excitement. Ginny was trying to untangle a bow that had gotten twisted in Lily's curls. Sirius looked around at the group like he had never quite experienced such a lively bunch.  
  
The volume level of the house was something that Harry loved. There was a calmness that seemed to settle in his chest when he heard the constant little voices, the yelling, and the laughter ring throughout his home. It was everything he thought a family should be. He could remember the quietness of Privet Drive and it was just too unnatural. After having his own kids, he couldn't imagine telling them to be quiet. The noise was music to his ears.  
  
"Okay, listen up!" Ginny hollered over the voices as she straightened up. "Lily, honey, you go with your dad. Al, you come with me. Sirius, do you mind going with James? Teddy, you can go by yourself."  
  
"I can go by myself too!" protested James. "I'm six now!"  
  
"No," Harry said quickly as he lifted Lily up in his arms.  
  
"Come on, Jay, I haven't done this in a long time. Can you help me?" Sirius inquired as he beckoned the boy towards him with a wave of his hand.  
  
Harry shot Ginny a look. It wasn't the first time they had heard Sirius refuse to call James and Lily by their given names. He always called them Elle and Jay as though saying anything except their first initial was too painful. Neither of the children seemed to mind so they let the nicknames slide.  
  
"I wasn't allowed to go through the Floo by myself until I was eight," Teddy commented as he grabbed a pinch of powder.  
  
"Yes, but that was only because Ginny and I were outnumbered at that point," Harry said dryly. "If I had my way, we'd still be traveling together."  
  
  
Teddy looked at his godfather, his face scrunched up in disgust. He rolled his eyes, rather dramatically in Harry's opinion. Teddy often told him that he was too overprotective. It was something that Harry didn't really consider himself to be. He was merely being a father and looking out for his kids. He gave them the attention and guidance that he had craved as a child but never received.  
  
"You get lost in the Floo once when you're a kid and you treat it like it'll be the death of one of our children," Ginny pointed out with a grin.  
  
"Yeah, well, I only have this Floo hooked up to a few houses, so they can't get too lost. It's the only reason I allow it."  
  
Harry had restricted the use of their Floo heavily. Besides the Burrow, it was only connected to three other houses: Ron and Hermione's, George and Angelina's, and Bill and Fleur's. It had taken a painstaking amount of paperwork and a lot of enchantments, but he felt it was safer that way. The kids traveled via Floo daily during the week to get to the Burrow while he and Ginny were at work. He didn't like the idea of someone he didn't know getting access to his Floo. He would rather have everyone except for family be barred from accessing it.  
  
Teddy stepped into the fireplace and bellowed, "The Burrow!" and he was gone in a swirl of flames. Harry held out the powder to Ginny who strolled forward and grabbed it from his hand. She gestured for him to go next. Reluctantly, he grabbed some. Lily was gripping him tightly as he stepped into the fireplace. Her face buried into his chest as he threw the powder down and disappeared into the flames while he said his destination.  
  
When he strolled out of the fireplace, he noticed Teddy's blue head running off with a mane of strawberry blonde hair. Lily wiggled in his arms as though demanding to be put down so she could run off as well. As soon as he sat her on her feet, she was running off in search of Hugo and yelling, "Ooo! Ooo!" The fireplace whirled behind him. Sirius and James walked out. Sirius looked slightly frazzled as James smirked madly.  
  
"What did you do?" demanded Harry wearily.  
  
"Nothing. Is Fred here yet?" James replied as he scampered off. "FRED!"  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Nothing. It was fine," Sirius said as he watched James go with a slightly abashed expression.  
  
"Sirius."  
  
"He tried to let go of my hand in the Floo," Sirius revealed in a confused tone as Ginny and Al appeared behind them. "Would I have lost him if I let go? I never traveled with someone in the Floo before."  
  
"I don't know," Harry responded honestly. "I mean, maybe. None of them have any done that with me before."  
  
"I want a younger one on the way home," Sirius demanded. "One that's too afraid to let go."  
  
"By the way, Harry, your son had a Dungbomb under his shirt," Ginny said as she sat Al down who immediately went running to find his cousins. "I confiscated it, but Teddy and James may have brought more."  
  
"Yeah, well, blame George for it. He gave them both a huge stash of them for their birthdays back in April," Harry explained with a heavy sigh. "I saw him sneak it to them at Teddy's party."  
  
"Of course, you didn't say anything. You never say anything. I know you saw the Dungbomb under James' shirt. I swear, Harry, you let them get away with too much. I feel like I have five kids sometimes."  
  
Harry shrugged his shoulders. A Dungbomb wasn't going to hurt anybody. He did let a lot of little things slide with his kids. He hated yelling and disciplining them, especially when the offense was small. He had been punished for the slightest infraction as a kid. He never wanted to parent like his aunt and uncle. He didn't want to be anything like them. Unless they were doing something stupid enough to get hurt or hurt someone else, he normally let things go. His kids knew that fact and, more likely than not, would take advantage of it.  
  
"Sirius Black," a familiar voice rang as they turned.  
  
Molly Weasley was wiping her hands on her apron as she marched forward with a warm smile gracing her features. She closed the space between them and stood directly in front of Sirius. He gave a tight smile as she reached up and cupped his face in her hands.  
  
"It's good to see you again," she said warmly as Sirius furrowed his brows in confusion.  
  
"Really?" questioned Sirius with a slight, unsure smile. "I always thought you hated me."  
  
She let out a strangled type of sob. She stood up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck. She started laughing as tears poured down her face. Sirius stood still for several seconds before he awkwardly patted her on the back and told her it was alright. Sirius shot Harry a desperate look of help but he only smirked back.  
  
"I know we had our disagreements, Sirius, but that's all behind us now. Harry was devastated when he thought he lost you. We were all so upset. I'm so glad you're okay."  
  
She pulled away and tugged the hem of her apron up to dab the corners of her eyes. Sirius stuffed his hands in his pockets as he surveyed the woman in front of him. His Adam's apple bobbled, his lips parting as though he wanted to say something but didn't know exactly what. He shot his godson another anxious look. He snapped his mouth shut and his mouth formed into a straight line.  
  
"We're going to eat outside since it's so nice. Bill and Arthur are putting together some tables," she supplied with a sniff. "Everyone is so anxious to see you Sirius. I made sure I talked to everyone after Ginny sent me an owl last night. Why don't you run along outside and see everyone?"  
  
"Do you need help, Mum?" Ginny inquired.  
  
"Oh, dear, it's nearly finished. Fleur and Angelina are just finishing up a salad and then we will be set to eat. We're still waiting for Ron and Hermione. I guess Ron got stuck in an interrogation at work so Hermione said she was going to wait for him. Percy got stuck at work as well so he's not coming tonight. For some reason, Audrey never comes without him."  
  
The disapproval was evident in her voice at the last statement. It wasn't the first time Harry had heard the complaint from his mother in law. He was more than happy to not get involved. He knew the Weasley family could be a lot to some people. He had saw firsthand how hard it was for Fleur to be accepted. He was just glad he was welcomed with open arms and had always been treated like one of the family. There was never an awkward moment or a snide remark when it came to him.  
  
"Come on. Let's go outside," Harry spoke quietly as he clapped Sirius on the shoulder.  
  
"I mean, I don't understand it," Molly continued as Ginny had an exasperated look on her face.  
  
"Harry always brings the kids if you're working late to complete a deadline! When you were out of town for Quidditch matches, he always brought Teddy! You two weren't even married yet. I don't think Audrey likes us much."  
  
"Mum, not everyone can be as great as Harry," she responded lightly and shot her husband a grin. "I'm sorry I was the only one who married appropriately."  
  
"Oh, Ginny, don't say that in front of the others," Molly hissed in a low voice. "You know I have a soft spot for Harry, but I also like Hermione, Fleur, and Angelina a lot. They bring the kids around too if your brothers are working."  
  
"Please, Mum, they all know you like Harry the best. George reckons you like him more than some of your own children," Ginny teased.  
  
Harry steered Sirius out of the living room and through the kitchen. Fleur and Angelina were preparing the salad. Their wands flicked as the knives chopped the vegetables in front of them. They chatted excitedly with large smiles dancing on their lips. Lingering behind them were Teddy and Victoire. They were stuffing biscuits in their pockets while trying to stifle their giggles. Upon spotting Harry, they bolted out of the kitchen and out to the back garden.  
  
The women looked up at them as their entered. Angelina stilled in her slicing. Fleur sat her wand down and glided around the table with her smile growing wider.  
  
"'Arry! Sirius!" she greeted.  
  
"You know each other?" inquired Harry.  
  
"Yeah, we've met a few times," Sirius replied. "She joined the Order shortly after Christmas."  
  
"Oui, I did. It is nice to see you again," Fleur said sincerely as she leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek in greeting. "'Ow are you?"  
  
"I'm good, thanks."  
  
"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," Harry commented before turning to Angelina. "Sirius, this is Angelina. She married George. Angelina, this is my godfather, Sirius Black."  
  
Angelina smiled warmly at him. He could see the hesitation shining in her eyes. He wondered if she was thinking of the year the Dementors were stationed at the school and Sirius breaking into Gryffindor Tower. Sirius raised his hand briefly to give a half-hearted wave.  
  
"It's nice to meet you," Angelina greeted. "Everyone else is out back. I know George has been excited all day to see you again. He was telling me some stories at work."  
  
"George owns his own joke shop in Diagon Alley. Angelina manages it with him," Harry explained.  
"More like George invents and I manage," Angelina corrected.  
  
"By the way, Ginny is upset that George slipped the boys more Dungbombs," Harry said with a huge grin.  
  
"Oh, well, I'd throw them out, Harry. George has been experimenting with Dungbombs lately. Some of them have been absolutely ghastly. I had to move Fred out of his bedroom for a good two weeks before I got the stench out."  
  
Harry groaned, a wince crossing his features. He gave his thanks for the warning before he motioned for Sirius to follow him out the back door.  
  
All the younger kids were outside running around like maniacs. Fred and James were screaming at the top of their lungs as they chased the gnomes around. Al, Roxanne, and Dominique were enthralled in a game of tag. Lily and Louis were spinning around in circles and loudly babbling nonsensical words until they fell onto the grass in a fit of giggles. Teddy and Victoire were sitting on a bench whispering to one other as they munched on their stolen biscuits.  
  
George, Bill, and Arthur were standing in a cluster chatting while they watched the kids running around. Laughter rang from their mouths, their shoulders shaking. Harry nodded his head in their direction for Sirius to come forward to see the Weasley men he hadn't seen in fifteen years. Arthur was the first one to turn around upon hearing their footfalls. He smiled warmly and stepped away from his sons.  
  
"Sirius," greeted, his hand extended, "I can't tell you how good it is to see you again."  
  
"Arthur, you look well," Sirius replied with a grin as their hands connected.  
  
Bill and George were making their way towards them. Sirius glanced up at them. The smile faded from his face as he took a good look at them. His eyes were flickering between George's lack of ear and Bill's extensive scarring.  
  
"I _ear_ you've been back for a few days," George joked as he stepped next to his father.  
  
"What the fuck?" Sirius laughed with a bark of disbelief. "What happened to you?"  
  
"Got my ear sliced off in a battle protecting your godson," George said pleasantly. "Joke's on them though. They thought I was Harry at the time."  
  
"Do I even want to know?"  
  
"No, you don't," Bill said with a smile. "It's good to see you again, mate. Before you ask, Fenrir Greyback attacked me in his human form. Not a werewolf but… things are a little different now. It's similar to what Teddy goes through every full moon. Which, by the way, that's tomorrow you know, Harry."  
  
Harry could tell Sirius was becoming overwhelmed. He had the same look in his eyes as he did in the hospital. It was a lot of information to take in. He had missed out on the rest of the war, missed out on all the life events of everyone he knew. Sirius' eyes flickered to Teddy who was laughing at something Victoire had said.  
  
"I know," Harry responded slowly. "It's why we pushed Al's party to next Saturday."  
  
"What's wrong with Teddy?" inquired Sirius, his voice was suddenly very grave.  
  
"Nothing's wrong with him. He just… struggles a little bit on the full moons. He doesn't transform or anything like that. He's just a bit irritable, a little more reckless, and can't sleep. He likes to go outside and take walks in the moonlight. I stay up with him every month to keep him company and make sure he doesn't do anything too impulsive. McGonagall allows me to spend a night a month at the castle in an abandoned classroom with him."  
  
"I reckon she got the better end of the bargain there, mate," George said with a grin before turning to Sirius. "She makes him give monthly talks at the school in exchange for him to be allowed to spend the night."  
  
"I've heard all the kids get a kick out of them," supplied Bill in an amused tone. "I've had a few trainees who joined me this summer who were telling some of the other curse-breakers about them. Apparently, you're very dreamy yet entertaining."  
  
Harry wrinkled his nose at the comment but said nothing. It had been awkward, at first, when he stood in front of the whole school to give a talk about Defense Against the Arts. Neville Longbottom, who taught Herbology for a good nine years and was Head of Gryffindor House, and Dean Thomas, who had started teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts two years ago, stood beside him with wide grins on their faces. They even showed off their old D.A. coins and attempted to tell a few embarrassing stories that Harry had to put a stop to. The subsequent months he spent with certain years and catered some defense training based on their level. The seventh years were particularly interesting to teach as the ones who had applied for the Auror training program made themselves known and tried their best to impress him. The interactions with certain students weighed heavily when he voted with the Recruitment Board on who to accept into the program.  
  
Some of the kids had been in awe by him and asked for grisly tales from the war and Auror cases. Others were frightened by him and acted like he was a Basilisk who could kill them with just one glance. Then, there were the giddy bunch. The girls who blushed and asked questions about his relationship with Ginny.  
  
"Dreamy? This git's not even thirty yet and he's got gray hairs," George said with a laugh as he reached out and pointed to a spot above his ears that was quickly becoming salt and pepper in color. "Merlin, do girls nowadays like old men?"  
  
"Shut it, George," Harry snapped.  
  
"Leave him be," Arthur said with a chuckle. "He has a highly stressful job. Not to mention, Teddy and James can be a handful at times."  
  
A hand was running through his hair suddenly. Harry jumped slightly to see Ginny standing next to him. She was grinning up at him, her brown eyes sparkling in the sunlight. She was looking very intently at his hair as her fingers toyed with it. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to his chest.  
  
"I like his hair," she said thoughtfully. "It suits him. Makes him look very sexy."  
  
"Ugh, Ginny, stop," George commented, disgusted. "You and Harry are unbearable sometimes."  
  
"It's called showing affection, George. It wouldn't kill you sometimes," snapped Angelina as she passed with her wand in front of her, levitating plates, bowls, silverware, and cups in front of her. "FRED WEASLEY AND JAMES POTTER! DON'T YOU DARE!"  
  
Ginny's hand dropped from his hair to rest on the nape of his neck as she craned her head around to look at the boys. Harry, reluctantly, turned as well. The two boys were oddly still with fireworks clenched in their little fists. James was smiling sheepishly while Fred was rolling his eyes, his head lolled back in exasperation. Harry didn't know what they were planning on doing so he just shot them a pleading look to stop.  
  
"James Potter, you better think before you act!" Ginny shouted as she pointed a finger at the boys.  
  
"Go on and just do it!" Ron's voice yelled from behind them. "Have fun first and then ask for forgiveness later!"  
  
"Ron, don't encourage them!" Hermione's voice hissed. "Sirius! It's good to see you."  
  
Harry whipped his head around to see Sirius turned to face the newcomers. Hermione was pulling him into an embrace. Ron lingered behind him with a goofy grin painted on his features. Hermione pulled back and stepped aside. Ron stepped up and pulled Sirius into a brief embrace.  
  
"It's good to see you again, mate," Ron said with his voice thick with emotion. "It's been a long time."  
  
"Good to see you two as well," Sirius replied.  
  
"Dinner is ready!" Molly's voice rang loudly.  
  
Molly and Fleur exited the Burrow with their wands carefully controlling an unbelievable amount of food. A large pot of stew sloshed forward. Next came a large platter of jacket potatoes and another platter of sprouts. The green salad, that Fleur and Angelina had been preparing, floated in a large bowl. Large jugs of pumpkin juice, several bottles of wine, and a good two dozen butterbeer bottles were also making their way to the table.  
  
"Molly! You've outdone yourself like always!" Arthur said with a wide smile while clapping his hands together as Molly glowed with pride. "Kids! Come and eat!"  
  
The kids were running towards the table, their laughter and voices deafening as they fought over who was sitting where and who was allowed to sit next to who. Harry took a spot in-between Ginny and Sirius while sitting across from Ron and Hermione. James shoved his way through the crowd to claim his spot next to Sirius while he dragged Fred behind him.  
  
"Sirius! Sirius! Sirius, this is Fred!" James said breathlessly. "Fred, he's one of the Marauders! He's Padfoot and he can really turn into a dog and it is _so_ cool!"  
  
Harry's eyes scanned the table to ensure all of his kids were there. Lily was hanging on Arthur while giggling madly. Teddy was at the other end of the table with Victoire and Angelina. Al was leaning against Molly as she broke apart the hot jacket potato for him while murmuring quietly to him.  
  
"You left work too early, Harry. Greengrass was looking for you. He was irate about all the interviews and was demanding to know what you were pulling," Ron commented as he stuffed his face with chicken stew.  
  
"Well, he shouldn't have come in at the end of the day," reasoned Harry. "What did he say to you?"  
  
"Apparently, he was out all day with Astoria Malfoy at the hospital. He thinks you conveniently planned all the interrogations when he was going to be out. I think his grandson tipped him off after we were done with his interview," Ron continued as he reached for a butterbeer. "He just said you were stooping to new lows and he was going to file an official complaint against the Auror Department."  
  
"Bully for him," Harry snapped with a heavy sigh. "Just what I want to deal with on Monday."  
  
"Well, then, you better have some wine," Ginny said cheerfully.  
  
She reached out to pour two glasses of wine before handing one to her husband. He took the glass from her but did not drink it. He sat it down next to his salad before turning back to his food.  
  
The table was an eruption of noise and multiple conversation. The kids talked about games and Al's birthday party the following weekend. The adults chatted about work, Quidditch, and parenting. Then, one by one, they all seemed to turn their attention to Sirius and bombarded him with questions about his return and how he was doing. He offered tight smiles and short responses.  
  
When the meal was dying down, a treacle tart and a raspberry trifle came flying from the open kitchen window. Molly, who knew everyone's preferences, served everyone their preferred dessert. She even sliced Sirius a piece of treacle tart and placed it in front of him while stating she remembered he enjoyed the dessert at Grimmauld Place. He gave her an odd look before giving his thanks.  
  
The kids gobbled down their desserts before they began their pleading to be excused from the table. They were granted it as soon as all the kids were finished. They fanned out around the yard while the screaming and laughter commenced once again. Harry grinned as he watched all the kids, minus Lily and Hugo who seemed to be in their own little world, playing a rather intense game of tag. Teddy laughed loudly as his long legs enabled him to easily catch all of the younger children, much to their dismay.  
  
Harry realized that Sirius had disappeared at some point while he was watching the game. His eyes scanned the backyard until he spotted his godfather's dark hair walking through the vegetable patch with his head bowed. Harry found himself standing up and making his way across the yard.  
  
By the time he caught up to him, Sirius stood beyond the fence. He was leaning against a large ash tree with his hands stuffed in his pockets. There was nothing but rolling fields ahead of him. Some of the chickens were scuttering around in a haphazard manner. Harry stepped over the fence carefully. He closed the space between them, stopping when their shoulders brushed against one another.  
  
"Alright?" inquired Harry.  
  
"I'm good," Sirius responded as he continued to stare at the scenery. "I'm just enjoying being outside."  
  
Harry shoved his own hands in his pockets as he turned his head to look at his godfather. There was a serene look on his face. It was a look that Harry wasn't sure he had ever seen on his features before.  
  
"It was one of the things I liked most about being on the run," Sirius continued in a faraway voice. "I was always outside. After being in Azkaban for twelve years in a dark and dank cell, it was thrilling to be out in the sun. I forgot how much I enjoyed it being locked up in Grimmauld Place for the past year."  
  
Sirius turned to look at Harry. The serene look fell from his features and a frown settled in its place. His eyes studied his godson's face before he looked away.  
  
"I guess not the past year. Fifteen years ago, I suppose," he corrected, bitterly.  
  
Suddenly understanding, Harry stilled. For Sirius, the time loss was painful and difficult to deal with. Harry, meanwhile, found it easier to handle. He had missed his godfather so much over the years, had wished so many times that he had never gone to the Department of Mysteries in the first place. To have his godfather back was like a dream come true.  
  
"It was the past year for you," Harry said softly. "Don't think of it as being stuck beyond the Veil for fifteen years. Think of it as time traveling fifteen years into the future. You're still the same age, still the same man. Time didn't pass for you."  
  
"It passed for you though, Harry. It passed for everyone else. I didn't just time travel into the future. I was alive, in the land of the dead, and now I'm back. It's… I can't describe how it even feels because I don't know how to feel about it. I just keep waiting to wake up."  
  
"It'll get easier with time," Harry commented although he wasn't entirely sure that was true. "Aren't you… I mean, are you not happy to be here?"  
  
Sirius snapped his head to look at him. His brow furrowed, his lips stretched into a thin line, his head jerked back slightly. His eyes roamed wildly across Harry's face.  
  
"I'm happy to be here," Sirius said slowly. "I just wish I didn't miss the last fifteen years. I wish I could have helped you defeat Voldemort. I wish I had seen you enter the Auror training program. I wish I had been there for when you got married. I wish I would have known the kids since they were born. I wish I was there when you were made head of the department. I missed a lot of your life. I just wish I could get those years back."  
  
"I wish you were there too, Sirius," Harry whispered. "I'm just so happy that you're here now though. We just got to move forward. We can't go back. There's no point in dwelling on what could have been or what should have been."  
  
Sirius kicked off the tree and stood up straight. He turned to face Harry. Reaching out an arm, Sirius clamped down a hand onto Harry's shoulder. There was a wave of comfort that washed through his entire body. It seemed like since their encounter in the kitchen the night before that things seemed less awkward. He felt closer to Sirius than he had in a long time. He relished in the feeling.  
  
"How's the case going?" inquired Sirius in a blatant way to shift the conversation. "You learn anything interesting during your interviews?"  
  
"I think Greengrass junior is definitely involved. He seemed distraught when I showed him the blood sigil," Harry commented in a low voice. "Nobody ever brought up the Greengrass name when we were rounding up Death Eaters after the war. I know they're an old pureblood family but they never seemed to be under suspicion."  
  
"I don't think they were directly involved with Voldemort. They were definitely sympathizers and vocal about blood purity though. They never joined ranks as far as I know. They were very much in the mindset of my parents: thought Voldemort had the right idea but were too scared to actually get involved and wanted others to do their dirty work."  
  
Sirius seemed much more at ease talking about Death Eaters and the case. He was always good about working out problems. Harry was suddenly transported back to the cave in Hogsmeade, talking to Sirius about the Triwizard Tournament and who had put his name in the Goblet of Fire. Harry squinted up at his godfather as the sun was slowly setting behind him and seeping between the branches of the tree.  
  
"Obviously, there's some pretty heavy Dark Magic going on," Harry started as he collected his thoughts. "Who would have taught Quinton Greengrass that type of magic if he wasn't involved with the Death Eaters? He's about seven years older than I am."  
  
"While the Greengrasses weren't involved with Voldemort, that doesn't mean they weren't involved with the Death Eaters," Sirius said flatly. "The Greengrass and Rookwood families were extremely close, for example. They went on holidays together, attended social events together, had their children playing with one another. Think of it akin to the relationship you hold with the Weasleys. You were always welcomed in their home, to celebrate holidays together, and they were, I'm assuming, thrilled when you and Ginny decided to marry. That's how the Greengrass and Rookwood families were. I'm not saying there is any connection, but Augustus Rookwood was best mates with Reuben Greengrass, Quinton's father. Rookwood worked in the Department of Mysteries during the first war before he was rounded up and locked up in Azkaban. "  
  
"What did Rookwood do in the Department of Mysteries?"  
  
"I haven't the faintest idea, Harry. Rookwood was clever and very charismatic. He was one of Voldemort's most useful spies because he was able to get information out of people very easily. People felt like they were talking to an old friend when they would converse with Rookwood. My aunt and uncle wanted Andromeda to marry him. They were enthralled by him."  
  
"Like Ludo Bagman," Harry added with a sigh. "Do you think Quinton Greengrass would visit Rookwood in Azkaban?"  
  
"Is that where Rookwood is now?" inquired Sirius as Harry nodded in the positive.  
  
"Ron and I were a part of the team of Aurors that found him about two years after the war. I arrested him personally."  
  
"Are there visitor logs at Azkaban or something you can look at? I doubt Gareth Greengrass or even Reuben Greengrass would be involved in something so Dark. They weren't exactly known to be involved in such Dark Magic and they wouldn't have had the resources to learn any of it. Rookwood would be a better person to learn from. Not only did he work in the department prior, but he was in Voldemort's inner circle and clever enough to pull off complex Dark Magic. This is just rumor, of course, but Voldemort was big on mastering necromancy."  
  
"He wanted Inferi armies. I know. Remember how I told you about how Voldemort created Horcruxes? One Horcrux was protected by an army of Inferi in a lake."  
  
"Well, that's certainly pleasant," Sirius replied with a frown. "Rumor has it that Rookwood was working closely with Voldemort in order to master necromancy with the knowledge he learned in the Department of Mysteries."  
  
"I suddenly feel like I'm eighteen again," Harry commented which garnered him a questioning look. "Ron and I had plenty of meeting with Robards, Proudfoot, and Savage where all we did was listen to them talk about the various connections amongst Death Eaters and what part they played in either of the wars. It was endless amount of information. We were trying to grasp at straws to figure out where the remaining Death Eaters would be hiding out. I think I blocked out all of that useless knowledge once the last of them were rounded up."  
  
"Did they talk about the necromancy stuff?" inquired Sirius.  
  
"I don't recall that. I feel like that's something that would have stuck out in my mind about Rookwood. I remember them talking about how charismatic he was and how many were shocked when Karkaroff named him," Harry explained. "Then again, I don't even remember the Greengrass name ever coming up in connection with anyone."  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
He turned around at his name to see his godson running through the vegetable patch before attempting to jump the fence. His leg got caught on one of the posts and he went tumbling face first towards the ground. Harry barely caught him in time before he faceplanted. He looked up at them, sheepishly, with an embarrassed grin crossing his lips.  
  
"You alright?" asked Harry as he helped the boy steady.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Ginny wanted me to find you. She said Lily is throwing a fit for bed and wants to head out."  
  
Looking down at his watch, he noticed it was rapidly approaching nine at night. Wrapping an arm around Teddy's shoulders, he began to walk back towards the house. Sirius followed behind them. Sirius jumped the fence first with ease and held out a hand to help Teddy over. The boy, gratefully, took it. The three of them walked together as Teddy started prattling on about had George showed him and James some new product prototypes he had been working on.  
  
Ginny was holding a squirming Lily who was half crying and half complaining in angry babbles. Al was leaning against her leg with heavy eyes. James was the liveliest of the bunch. He was talking fast with George, Ron, and Fred. Ginny turned when she heard them coming and a look of relief crossed her face. They bid their goodnights. Molly gave everyone hugs and kisses on the cheek. James complained as they trudged into the house.  
  
"Al, come with me," Sirius addressed the small boy as he held a hand out to him.  
  
The boy grinned and walked over to clasp his hand. Ginny grabbed a pinch of Floo powder and told Lily to calm down as she stepped into the flames. She exclaimed, "Potter House!" and disappeared. Sirius and Al right next, followed by Teddy. James started to stroll to the fireplace by himself when Harry reached out and gripped his shoulder. He stepped into the fireplace with him and they traveled together. James knew better than to try anything with his father.


	5. Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Arnel for beta-ing!

**“Cheating Death”**

**“Chapter Five: Moonlight”**

  
  
There was a steady pelting of rain that hit the window to the master bedroom. Harry laid there perfectly still and listened to the rhythm. On the bedside table, the clock illuminated a pale yellow in the otherwise dark room. It told Harry that it was just past five in the morning. He watched Ginny sleeping next to him. She was sprawled out on her stomach, her head turned towards him on her pillow, a small trail of drool escaping the side of her mouth. Soft snores sounded in the silent room.  
  
He had struggled all night to fall asleep and it only came in small spurts. It felt like he looked at the clock every hour on the hour as his mind wheeled with theories about his case and Sirius’ trance-like state that Ginny described. He couldn’t stop thinking about going to Azkaban and looking at the visitor logs to see if Sirius’ theory of Greengrass visiting Rookwood was correct. He could remember his godfather’s theories always panning out as he seemed to have the ability to piece together small bits of random information together.  
  
Not being able to take lying still any longer, Harry eased out of the bed silently and grabbed his work robes from the back of the chair. He got ready quickly before sneaking out of the bedroom and making his way downstairs. He grabbed his briefcase by the front door and took it with him. He thought he could rifle through some paperwork while he had his morning coffee.  
  
Upon entering the kitchen, Harry stilled. He noticed Sirius sitting at the kitchen table with his fingers laced around a mug of tea. He was staring out the back window with a faraway look spread across his features. Taking a few steps further into the kitchen, Harry cleared his throat softly to garner his godfather’s attention.  
  
“Morning,” Sirius said hoarsely as Harry dropped his briefcase off at the table before making his way to the cupboards. “What are you doing up?”  
  
“I couldn’t sleep,” Harry admitted as he prepared himself a cup of coffee. “I was thinking of going to Azkaban this morning to look through the visitor logs and talk to Rookwood potentially.”  
  
Sirius pulled a face of disgust at the mention of the prison.   
  
“You know, the Dementors are gone now,” Harry commented. “They were done away with after the war.”  
  
“What kind of guards are there now?” Sirius asked in mild interest.  
  
“After the war, it was exclusively Aurors. We all took shifts. Now, there needs to be two trainee Aurors and two Aurors on at all times and the rest are specifically trained prison guards,” Harry explained as he sat down at the table next to Sirius with his coffee. “I rarely go there now since I was made departmental head. Kingsley and I do an inspection together every six months but it’s been years since I’ve had a shift or even questioned anyone there. It’s been quiet the past several years.”  
  
Sirius merely nodded his head at the information. He stared at his cup of tea almost as though he were lost in a memory. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes. Harry idly drank his coffee as his gaze flickered from Sirius to the rain pouring down outside.  
  
“It’s a-a good thing,” Sirius croaked, his voice breaking.  
  
“I worked with Kingsley a lot to reform Azkaban and ensure everyone got a fair trial. You influenced the new policies heavily,” Harry told him softly. “A lot of people were irritated with it at first. People thought we should just be throwing Death Eaters into prison and not wasting time or resources on trials. Except, all I thought about was you and I didn’t want to make that mistake of locking someone up who was innocent.”  
  
Sirius became oddly quiet, nodding his head in response. Harry dropped the conversation. His mind wandered back to the sigil that was tucked away in his briefcase. He reached over and searched through his bag until he found a picture of it. He pulled it out and slid it over to Sirius who sat his mug of tea down.  
  
Harry watched his godfather’s face closely. His brows furrowed, his color drained, his eyes seemed slightly glassy. He reached up a shaking hand and pulled the picture closer to him.  
  
“Do you know what that is?” inquired Harry softly.  
  
“I… I don’t know. It’s familiar, somehow, but I don’t know why,” he rasped as he tilted his head to the right. “I… what _is_ it?”  
  
“It was painted on the floor of the Department of Mysteries when we found the dead body,” Harry explained.  
  
Sirius closed his eyes as his hand flew to his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He looked deep in thought as though he were wracking his brain to remember where he had seen the sigil before. Moments passed and Sirius barely moved.  
  
Footfalls rang from behind them. Harry turned around to see a tired Ginny entering the kitchen with Lily in her arms. The little girl looked wide awake and a grin broke out across her freckly face when she saw the two men who were already in the kitchen. She squirmed fitfully until Ginny lowered her down to the ground.  
  
“Pa’f! ‘Pa’f!” Lily squealed as she ran directly towards Sirius with her arms opened wide.   
  
Sirius looked up at the commotion that Lily was making. He forced a small, tight smile on his face as he leaned down over the chair with his arms open wide to pick her up and settle her on his lap. Lily’s hands immediately wrapped around the man’s neck and she planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek.  
  
“You two are up early,” commented Ginny as she pointed her wand at the kettle to heat it for a cup of tea.  
  
“I’m going to run into work for a little bit today,” Harry commented.  
  
“Are you going to be home tonight for Teddy?”  
  
“I shouldn’t be gone for long. I need to look at some records at Azkaban and then interview someone. A few hours tops.”  
  
Ginny slid into the seat next to Harry with her fingers laced around her cup. She yawned as she shot her husband a glance.  
  
“So, expect you back by four?” Ginny said in a mildly teasing tone.  
  
“I’ll be back by lunch,” Harry countered.  
  
“Your concept of time while you’re at work is messed up,” she pointed out with a small smirk. “You say a few hours and, most times, a few hours turns out to be all day and night.”  
  
“I promise, it will only be a few hours. I’m not going into the office and I doubt Rookwood is going to tell me anything.”  
  
“You’re talking to Rookwood?” Ginny questioned in an odd tone.  
  
“Yeah, why? You didn’t know him, did you?”  
  
“I… well, not really. He would come into Hogwarts sometimes to talk to the Carrows or Snape the year you were gone. He would help… discipline the students when he was in sometimes.”  
  
Ginny wasn’t looking at him. Her eyes were glued to her tea and her hands were gripping the cup so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. Ginny didn’t talk much about the year he was hunting Horcruxes and she was stuck at Hogwarts. Honestly, Harry didn’t talk much about hunting Horcruxes with her either. It was a year that they sort of never talked about in an odd way. They were both happier not knowing all the gritty details. Obviously, there were times when comments were made like this moment, but they never had a long, drawn out conversation about their year apart during the war. He knew the basics of what happened at Hogwarts just as she knew the gist of what he had been up to. The details just never seemed that important. She understood it was the worst year of his life in the magical world and he understood it was the worst year of her life.  
  
“Did he _do_ anything to you?” asked Harry in a quiet voice as his eyes bore into the side of her face. “I need to know before I go there to speak with him.”  
  
Alecto Carrow liked to say all the nasty things she had done to Ginny during that year at Hogwarts anytime she saw him at Azkaban. She would press her face right up against the bars and tell him all the nasty ways she had punished her, how she would cry, how she would plead. The first time she had said anything had come as quite a shock to him. He knew that punishments had been horrible at Hogwarts that year and certainly knew Ginny had her fair share but hearing a very detailed description of the torture of his then girlfriend made his stomach drop. It had happened shortly after Ginny had left for her last year at Hogwarts. He remembered leaving Azkaban that night after his shift and Apparating to Hogsmeade. He had stormed the castle and shouted at the Fat Lady to let him in so that he could talk to Ginny. He had to know if what Carrow had said was true for reasons Harry didn’t fully understand.  
  
Eventually, Professor Vector, who had taken over as Head of Gryffindor House when Professor McGonagall was appointed Headmistress, had shown up in her dressing gown. She had started to holler at him for coming onto school property and making such a commotion but stopped when saw how pale he was. He remembered shaking with rage and concern. She had disappeared to grab Ginny who seemed less than impressed when he pressed her for information.  
  
 _“She tortured us all, Harry,”_ she had said at the time with her arms crossed defiantly over her chest. _“You know that punishments were harsh last year. I told you that much. If you’re expecting me to tell you every single time I was punished and how, then you’re out of luck. I’m not reliving that. I just want to move on.”_  
  
The answer had never satisfied. Carrow’s details of the punishments of Ginny and his other friends became more elaborate and detailed over the years. The stories about Ginny always made it feel like his blood had turned to ice. Ginny was adamant that she didn’t want to relive every excruciating detail of her punishments or the punishments of others. Harry was often left wondering what was and was not true. He had categorized it all in his mind as blatant exaggerations to get to him.  
  
“Once,” Ginny admitted aloofly. “He put me under the Cruciatus Curse once.”  
  
Harry’s jaw tightened as he looked away from her. He saw Sirius staring at them, his arms tight around Lily’s small body as his eyes blazed with anger between them. It was a look Harry had seen several times over the past few days. Anytime they told Sirius something rather unpleasant about the war, he always got a look of anger mixed with guilt that would appear on his face. He always become upset that he wasn’t there to help or stop it.  
  
“I’m going to head out and get this over with,” Harry announced as he pushed his chair back and stood up.  
  
Harry leaned down and kissed Ginny on the cheek. His lips lingered by her ear and he told her he loved her. She turned towards him and smiled softly.  
  
“I love you too, Harry,” she spoke softly.  
  
He waved briefly at Sirius and Lily before grabbing his briefcase and making his way out of the front door, down the street, and Apparating once he was beyond the wards.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Harry hated Azkaban. He had hated it ever since he was thirteen and met the Dementors that used to guard the prison. He had hated it ever since he learned his godfather had been locked up there for over a decade for a crime he didn’t commit. Even when he was an Auror and the Dementors were long gone, he continued to hate the place. The prisoners of Azkaban, especially those who had been Death Eaters, liked to scream and taunt him whenever he passed by their cells. The noise was always deafening and had taken Harry a good year to get used to the scene that would be caused whenever he entered the prison.   
  
“Morning, Auror Potter! I didn’t know you’d be in today! The inspection isn’t until next month!” an enthusiastic voice welcomed him.  
  
“Hello, Nigel,” Harry replied with a tight yet pleasant smile. “I’ve come to look at the visitor logs and potentially talk to one of the prisoners.”  
  
“Here’s the log from yesterday. I didn’t have a chance to file it yet. The rest of them are in the binder in the office.”  
  
Nigel Wolpert grinned as he handed Harry a sheet of paper. His eyes scanned over it quickly to see no visitors were in yesterday and quickly looked over the names of those on duty. He nodded his thanks to Nigel as he signed his name on the new sign in sheet before making his way to the back office.  
  
Harry entered the office to see Mordecai Berrycloth sitting hunched over at the desk scratching a quill on a piece of parchment. He was a junior Auror who had joined the department five years ago. Upon seeing Harry enter, he made a motion to abandon the desk when Harry held up a hand.  
  
“I’m just here to look at the visitor logs so don’t mind me,” Harry told him.  
  
Berrycloth sat a little straighter in his seat and looked back down at the work he was doing. Although Harry could see he wasn’t actually doing any work, the Auror was too busy watching his boss out of the corner of his eye. Harry crossed the room and opened a large filing cabinet in search the visitor log files. He found it quickly and sat it down on the corner of the desk that Berrycloth was sitting at.   
  
He filed the newest sheet before flicking back the last month. Multiple times, Quinton Greengrass’ name appeared on the visitor log stating that he was visiting Augustus Rookwood. There were weeks when he visited multiple times. Harry frowned when he saw that Greengrass had been there at eight o’clock on the dot the morning Sirius had been found in the Department of Mysteries. With a fervor, he went back the past several months and saw that Greengrass’ name keep appearing. How had nobody ever picked this up and mentioned it to anybody?   
  
“I need to interview a prisoner,” Harry bit out angrily. “Gather the other Aurors on duty.”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Berrycloth said nervously as he stood up. “What prisoner, sir?”  
  
“Augustus Rookwood.”  
  
Harry slammed the visitor log shut. His hand reached up and rubbed his chin. He attempted to take a few calming breaths but failed miserably.  
  
“I’ll meet you in the main lobby,” Harry snapped as he exited the office.  
  
He only had to wait a few moments before all four Aurors on duty showed up. Berrycloth must have tipped them off about his foul mood because they all appeared nervous and eyed him cautiously as they joined him. Wordlessly, Harry motioned them to follow him down a corridor of jailcells.  
  
“POTTER!”  
  
Someone had caught sight of Harry. He ignored them as he continued to walk towards Rookwood’s cell. The other prisoner’s must have, unfortunately, heard his name because now screams were filling the prison. Hands jutted out of the bars as they screamed obscenities and threats at him. Harry kept his gaze in front of him and didn’t give any of them the satisfaction that he could even hear them.  
  
Harry stilled outside of Rookwood’s cell. He was standing at the front of his cell with his arms lazily hanging out of the bars. There was a knowing smirk on his face as though he had been expecting them.  
  
“Step back away from the bars, Rookwood, and hands out in front of you,” Harry commented sternly.   
  
Catcalls sounded down the corridor as Harry started to speak. The prisoners were getting progressively louder and the words they spoke were becoming harder to understand. Harry’s jaw tightened as Rookwood stepped back and held his wrists out in front of him. An Auror from behind him muttered a spell and manacles appeared on the prisoner’s wrists and ankles. Berrycloth stepped forward and opened the cell door. The rest of the Aurors flanked around him and marched him out the cell at wand point.  
  
Harry trailed behind the group. The prisoners were now speaking to Rookwood as they passed. Encouragements to attempt to murder or severely maim Harry while in interrogation echoed against the stone walls of the prison.  
  
Upon entering the interrogation room, Harry sat down at one end of the table while the other Aurors started to secure Rookwood across from him. The cuffs on his ankles were attached to a chain that was secured to the floor. The manacles on his wrists were attached to a chain that was secured on the metal table. Once fully secured, the other Aurors left the room to stand guard outside.  
  
Rookwood sneered at Harry. His fingers drummed on the metal table in a steady rhythm. Harry decided to skip the pleasantries and get straight to business.  
  
“I see that Quinton Greengrass has visited you quite a bit over the past six months,” Harry spoke calmly as he carefully watched Rookwood’s face.  
  
“I’m his godfather,” Rookwood said coolly. “You’d know all about godfathers, wouldn’t you, Potter? Perhaps not though. I suppose _your_ godfather had better things to do than take care of you when you were a kid.”  
  
Harry’s jaw tightened as his fists clenched. His eyes bore into Rookwood. The older man looked smugly back at him with a smirk twisted on his features and eyes shining brightly.  
  
“What do you and Greengrass discuss when he visits?” inquired Harry as he bit down the anger growing in his chest.  
  
“Life.”  
  
“Life? Perhaps, work? You used to be an Unspeakable just like Greengrass is now.”  
  
Rookwood just smirked calmly back at him. His eyebrow quirked up slightly.  
  
“You know I’m not going to tell you anything, Potter,” Rookwood taunted. “You’re a half-blood, Mudblood-loving, half-breed raising arsehole. I hear your own godson’s a bloody werewolf and a Metamorphmagus freak.”  
  
A deep, primal growl emitted from the depths of Harry’s throat. The corners of his lips twitched as his eyes narrowed coldly at the man in front of him. It took every single bit of self-control he possessed to stop himself from leaping across the metal table and pummeling the man to a bloody pulp.  
  
“You better watch yourself, Rookwood, because I can make your life in here a living hell,” Harry snarled. “I can make your godson’s life a living hell too.”  
  
“I forgot how touchy you get over your little freaks of nature,” Rookwood challenged, his face emotionless. “So proud to be associated with werewolves, Metamorphmagi, vampires… the disgusting, abnormal filth that dares to call themselves wizards. You go about fighting for their rights as though they deserve any.”   
  
Harry stood up so fast that his chair went clattering to the floor. His hands gripped the edge of the cool table and pure venom coursed through his veins. His chest heaved as a nasty sneer worked its way onto his face.  
  
“Maybe a week in solitary will loosen your tongue,” snarled Harry. “That means no visits, no free time out of your cell, no contact with even a fucking prison guard. If your tongue still isn’t loose enough, maybe we’ll tack on another week. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll be back in your cell to watch your murdering godson get his own little cell.”  
  
Rookwood suddenly stood up, the chains around his wrists clanked loudly as his arms strained against the restraints. He was red in the face and he tugged on the chains hard as a howl of anger emitted from his lips.  
  
“I will get out of here and I will murder your entire family, Potter!” Rookwood shouted. “I’ll start with that little blood traitor wife of yours! I’ll have her begging for me to kill her before long!”  
  
The doors to the interrogation room burst open at the screaming and the loud rattling of the chains. Harry’s gaze never left Rookwood as two trainee Aurors walked past him and tried to subdue the prisoner. Berrycloth was by Harry’s side in an instant, his face grim.  
  
“Put him in solitary!” Harry commanded as a fury still coursed through him. “I want his cell searched for anything that could have been smuggled in!”  
  
Harry, Berrycloth, and another senior Auror named Charlotte Green ripped apart Rookwood’s cell while the Auror trainees and a few prison guards took Rookwood to solitary confinement. Harry wasn’t quite sure what they were looking for but something told him that Quinton Greengrass might have slipped something to him during their many visits.   
  
Sure enough, Harry noticed a small stone that seemed misplaced in the bottom corner of the cell. His fingers curled around the stone and wretched it out of the wall. Inside the hole lay several bits of yellowed pieces of paper folded into tiny squares. He pulled them out and started to smooth them open. They were all pages that were torn from books. The first page that glared up at Harry shone, in bright black ink, the same sigil he had seen on the floor of the Department of Mysteries. At the top of the page were the words _The Symbol of Death_.  
  
“I want everything overturned,” Harry spoke in an eerily serious voice. “Search this place with a fine-toothed comb!”  
  
Harry stood up to his full height and started flipping through the pages in his hands. His heart pounded wildly in chest. Sirius had been right. Rookwood had known the type of Dark Magic that had been displayed in the Department of Mysteries and the Dark Magic that had pulled Sirius from beyond the Veil. Harry turned slowly around and watched as Berrycloth ripped apart the mattress and Green tapped the stones with the tip of her wand. His jaw clenched as he watched the scene in front of him.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Harry leaned back into the plush cushions of the sofa on the back patio with a butterbeer clenched in his hands. Ginny was curled up next to him, her head resting on his shoulder and her fingers teased his inner thigh. He sighed contentedly as he watched Padfoot chasing after Lily and Al who squealed in delight. They were both covered in mud from the morning rain but neither of them seemed to be bothered by it. Teddy and James were racing on their brooms above them.  
  
His mind wandered back to his morning at Azkaban. Nothing else had been discovered in Rookwood’s cell except for the papers. Besides the sigil, there was a page that talked about the origins of the Veil and a vague description on how to communicate with those beyond the Veil. There was nothing about a ritual to pull anyone out from the Veil.  
  
He had run into the office after he had left the prison and called in a team of Aurors. They were, currently, raiding Greengrass’ house. They were to collect all papers, books, or anything that looked even remotely suspicious or out of place. The house was to be blocked off and warded against anyone entering upon the raid being completed.  
  
Harry had assigned Ron to head the raid. The only thing stopping him from leading it himself was his godson. Teddy needed him on the days and nights of a full moon. He wasn’t going to disappoint or let the kid down when Ron was more than capable of handling a simple raid. There had only been a handful of times over the years that Harry had missed a full moon. He could count the times on one hand. Luckily, Ginny had easily taken his place those few times. It was nearing six o’clock at night, and he knew the raid was still going on. Ron had not yet sent a Patronus to let him know it had finished.   
  
“I’ve been thinking,” Ginny spoke softly as she tilted her head up slightly to catch his eye. “We should take our holiday next month. We should take Sirius with us. It might be good to get away for a week.”  
  
Teddy dangled dangerously over the edge of his broom, his legs locked around the wood securely, as he reached his hands down to a giggling Albus. He hoisted the boy up onto his broom as Padfoot nipped playfully at his feet. Lily attempted to climb onto the dog’s back but failed as she was too short to hoist herself up.  
  
“I’m all for that if Ron and I can crack this case,” Harry said thoughtfully.  
  
“Even if it’s not finished, you need a break. This whole situation has been beyond stressful for everyone and it hasn’t even been a week yet,” Ginny told him pointedly. “You can have Kingsley issue you an emergency, international Portkey in case something happens.”  
  
“Is that your compromise?” Harry questioned with a chuckle.  
  
“Isn’t that one of the perks you get when you become an oh so important departmental head?” asked Ginny with a smile as she sat up.  
  
She turned her body until she faced him on the sofa, her legs curled up to sit cross legged. Her eyebrows wiggled at him.  
  
“It is fairly easy for me to get an international Portkey,” Harry admitted with a grin. “I already have all the clearances on file.”  
  
“See, we can pack one in our suitcase and you won’t miss anything important.”  
  
She leaned closer towards him, her hand reaching out to cup the side of his face. He bent his body down so that their faces were mere millimeters apart. Their noses just barely grazed together.  
  
“You work too much. I thought you’d work less as Head Auror but, sometimes, I feel like you work more,” she admitted.  
  
“I travel less, but I do feel like I work more too,” he agreed softly.  
  
Both of his hands rose up until they were on either side of Ginny’s face. He brushed his thumbs along her cheeks before gently tugging her forward. Their lips met in a chaste kiss. Her hand left his cheek and slid to the nape of his neck. Her fingers tangled in his hair as she deepened the kiss.  
  
“Oi!” James shouted. “Daaaaaaaad, Uncle Ron’s Patronus is here!”  
  
Harry pulled back from the kiss and turned to see the familiar Jack Russell Terrier bolting across the back garden. It trotted up the couple of steps to the back patio before sitting down in front of Harry and Ginny.  
  
“Raid complete,” Ron’s voice echoed from the Patronus. “I have a team of Aurors sorting and categorizing everything now. I also sent out a Charms team to lock down the house. I have a couple Aurors tailing Quinton Greengrass and they’ll let us know if he tries to visit Rookwood. Gareth Greengrass showed up halfway through. He’s pissed, mate, so be prepared for him to go on a tirade when you get to the Ministry on Monday morning. I mean it, Harry, don’t come in until Monday. It’s going to take until then just to sort through everything. I put Proudfoot in charge of overseeing it. He promises to contact your arse if he finds anything really good.”  
  
The Patronus faded away as Harry frowned. He had every intention of arriving at the Ministry first thing in the morning despite his lack of sleep he was going to get that night. He had run on empty before during a particularly rough case and he could do it again if need be. He wanted to look at the evidence they collected and see if he could piece together exactly what Greengrass had done in the Department of Mysteries.  
  
Ginny rested a comforting hand on his thigh. He turned towards her to see her watching the kids running and flying around. Upon feeling his eyes on her, she turned to look at him with s soft smile.  
  
“You look exhausted,” she commented. “I can stay up with Teddy tonight if you want to try to get some sleep.”  
  
“No, I’m fine. It’s mine and Teddy’s thing. It’s what Remus would want,” Harry trailed off as an uncomfortable lump formed in his throat. “Besides, I have a feeling Sirius will want to join us tonight.”  
  
“I just know you. I know you’re going to go into the Ministry tomorrow. You can’t help yourself,” Ginny said in a light tone. “You never did learn how to delegate probably.”  
  
“I’ve gotten loads better at that since becoming head,” Harry countered.  
  
“Admit it, Potter, you’re dying right now not being there.”  
  
Harry didn’t want to admit it out loud. It was killing him not to be going through the evidence. He could easily become obsessed with a case. It would fester at him until he solved it. This case was one of those cases that bothered him to no end. He wanted to figure it out and solve it as quickly as possible.  
  
“I can wait until Monday,” he said firmly. “Ron’s right, it’ll be easier to go through things once it’s all sorted.”  
  
“A hundred Galleons says you’re going into work tomorrow,” Ginny teased.  
  
“A hundred Galleons?” Harry laughed. “That’s a lot of money to bet on whether I’ll cave and go to work.”  
  
“I’ve had my eye on a new set of quills for work,” Ginny replied with a smirk. “Plus, you’re a workaholic, so I know I’ll win.”  
  
“You want a set of quills that costs hundred Galleons?” Harry asked in astonishment. “Do they write in gold or something?”  
  
Ginny merely glared at him, her eyes rolling slightly.  
  
“I write all day long, Harry,” Ginny started. “I didn’t say anything when you bought those ridiculous dragon hide boots for work that cost five times the amount of the quill set that I want.”  
  
“Oi, those came in handy quite a few times in the field,” he retorted. “I miss those boots. I should buy a new pair.”  
  
“Oh, yes, because you’ll need those for when you write out the schedules and read reports all day,” Ginny teased. “They’ll look good when you prop your feet up on your desk.”  
  
Harry laughed, his eyes sparkling as he looked down at his wife. She was grinning broadly.  
  
“Okay, if I go into work tomorrow, you can go buy your quills. If I don’t go in tomorrow, I get to buy my boots.”  
  
“Oh, Merlin, I hope Proudfoot contacts you tomorrow with some juicy evidence. You won’t be able to resist.”  
  
It was an hour later when Ginny and Harry called the kids to come inside. They begrudgingly put their brooms away before trudging up to the back patio covered from head to toe in mud. Ginny waved her wand at each of them to clean the mud off before she allowed them in the house.   
  
It took another good hour to get all the kids in the bath, into their pajamas, and ready for bed. Harry noticed Teddy getting increasingly hyper as the day progressed. He was smiling manically and bounding around the house. Harry had to practically drag his godson out of James’ room when it was bedtime so the boys could go to sleep.   
  
Once the younger kids were in bed, Sirius and Teddy sat on the floor playing Gobstones on the coffee table in the living room. Ginny had joined them as well. She normally stayed up later than normal on the nights of the full moon to keep them company. She was curled up in an armchair reading a book on Quidditch. Harry lay down on the sofa with an arm draped over his eyes. He listened to Sirius and Teddy chat about Hogwarts. Teddy was telling him all about his friends, the professors, his favorite and least favorite classes.  
  
Harry was exhausted both mentally and physically. Sleep was calling to him like a siren. He slipped into a dreamless sleep only to be shaken awake a few hours later. Ginny was looming over him with a cup of coffee in her hand. He sleepily sat up and took the mug in his hand. He thanked her and took a sip of the steaming hot liquid.  
  
“I’m heading to bed,” she whispered and brushed her lips on his forehead. “Sirius and Teddy are getting some snacks from the kitchen.”  
  
“How long was I out?” he croaked as he fought the sleep back.   
  
“A few hours,” Ginny responded with a grin. “Teddy wasn’t upset. We were able to entertain him. Sirius and I told him embarrassing stories about you.”  
  
“Lovely,” Harry replied as he swung his legs off the sofa. “I could tell embarrassing stories about you too, you know. You better watch it.”  
  
“My embarrassing stories are endearing,” she said lightly.   
  
“That’s what you think,” he teased her back.  
  
Sirius and Teddy entered the living room. Teddy was clenching a tin of homemade biscuits from Molly Weasley while Sirius had a bag of Walkers crisps in his hand. Ginny bid the boys goodnight. She stopped briefly at Teddy and pulled the boy into a tight hug.  
  
“Be safe, okay?” she murmured in his ear. “Stay close to Harry when you go outside.”  
  
“Ginny, I _know_ ,” Teddy responded as he returned the hug, the tin tilting dangerously as the biscuits slid to one side and threatened to topple to the ground.  
  
“I love you,” Ginny said as she pulled back and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight.”  
  
“Love you too, Ginny,” Teddy replied with a grin and an eye roll.  
  
Ginny reached out a hand to brush Sirius’ arm lightly and bid him goodnight as well. She then disappeared out of the living room and up the stairs. Teddy sank down on the sofa opposite Harry with the tin of biscuits in his lap. He idly munched on them as Sirius took a spot next to his godson. He tossed the crisps onto the coffee table before leaning back.  
  
“You going to stay up with us or go back to sleep?” Sirius teased.  
  
“I’m good,” Harry responded as he studied his godson with mild interest.  
  
Teddy was a jittery mess the night of the full moon. His legs bounced, his head bopped, his fingers tapped in a steady rhythm against the tin in his lap. He could not sit still. There was an almost maniac grin on his face as his eyes darted between Harry and Sirius on the sofa across from him.   
  
Harry could remember when Teddy was a toddler and couldn’t communicate his needs on the full moon nights. He’d scream for hours. He’d claw at his godfather’s arms and attempt to escape out of the house to run around outside. Harry had never been more concerned with what exactly was wrong with his godson than in those days. He could remember many visits to St. Mungo’s only to be told there was nothing wrong with the boy. Harry wasn’t exactly sure what Remus had passed down to Teddy, but there was definitely some werewolf blood within him.  
  
Nowadays, Teddy and Harry stayed up every full moon talking, playing games, going for walks. He had to ensure the kid was safe during the full moons as the personality shift was quite evident. His godson’s mind wasn’t exactly the most reasonable. He often displayed reckless and maniac behaviors. Harry knew he needed someone to keep a close eye on him.  
  
“Is this what it was like when my dad would turn into a werewolf?” Teddy asked in an excited tone, his trainers kicking against the couch in a steady rhythm.  
  
“Not exactly,” Sirius answered with a soft grin. “An actual werewolf isn’t as friendly as you are.”  
  
“Harry was telling me that they have potions where werewolves aren’t so mean and dangerous,” Teddy said thoughtfully as he munched on another biscuit.  
  
“Your dad really liked that potion,” Sirius added thoughtfully. “I got to see him as a wolf on the potion a few times. It was brilliant. I remember just sitting with him as me and not Padfoot. It was surreal.”  
  
Harry leaned back into the sofa and took a large gulp of his coffee. He was fighting the sleep from his eyes as he forced himself to wake up fully. He glanced at the clock on the mantle to see it was nearing one in the morning. He knew that Teddy would be begging to go outside soon. His eyes, by this point in the night, were heavily dilated.  
  
“Harry took me to the Shrieking Shack last year,” Teddy mentioned as he started to chew on his bottom lip. “He told me I couldn’t tell any of the professors.”  
  
“I spent many nights there while I was in Hogwarts,” Sirius informed him. “We even went there some nights when it wasn’t the full moon. Your dad hated when we’d go there on a non-full moon.”  
  
“Why would you go there if it wasn’t a full moon?”  
  
“Uh… a change of scenery, I suppose.”  
  
Harry snorted. He had no doubt that their trips probably involved drinking or some other illegal activity. He was thankful that Sirius had enough sense not to tell a twelve-year-old exactly what they were up to. He had only gotten a handful of owls from Professor Sprout detailing his godson’s detentions. He wasn’t keen to see that number increase because he got wild ideas from Sirius.  
  
“Harry already told me all about how you got detentions all the time in school,” Teddy said with a wave of a hand. “He had to rewrite detention cards from when you guys were in school for a while.”  
  
“You rewrote our detention cards?” inquired Sirius with a confused look on his face. “Why? What was the point of that? I never had to do anything like that before.”  
  
“Yeah, weekly for quite a while in my sixth year. It was to preserve them. It was Snape’s idea,” Harry explained. “I think he was trying to upset me. You know, having to read all the stuff you and my dad pulled while at school.”  
  
“Merlin, that was bound to be boring yet oddly informative,” Sirius chose his words carefully. “I hope you got a kick out of some of them, at least.”  
  
“Let’s just say there were a few times I was surprised you and my dad didn’t get expelled after all the stuff you pulled,” Harry pointed out with a slight grin.   
  
“We were young and stupid. We thought we were clever and were bored half the time. It was a dangerous combination,” confessed Sirius with a sigh. “It’s some…”  
  
Harry looked over at his godfather to see him sitting very still. He wasn’t moving. His mouth was opened partly. He wasn’t blinking. It felt like ice had shot through Harry’s veins. He quickly set his mug on the coffee table and turned towards Sirius. Reaching out a hand, Harry gripped his shoulder to give it a small shake to try to draw him out of the trance-like state he was in.   
  
“Sirius?” he inquired.  
  
He shook Sirius by the shoulder again, rougher this time. Still, the older man looked like he had been Stunned. He was unwavering, still as a stone statue. A lump expanded in his throat. Harry’s chest began to heave as waves of fear crashed into him.   
  
“Harry, is he okay?” asked Teddy who was now looming in front of the pair on the sofa.   
  
Harry couldn’t talk, couldn’t get his mouth to even move let alone get words out. He shook Sirius again by the shoulder with a fervor. The minutes seemed to be ticking by with no sign of improvement. Letting his hand drop from Sirius’ shoulder, Harry turned to the end table where his wand lay. He clenched it between his fingers and pointed it at his godfather’s chest. He hesitated for several seconds as he willed for his godfather to just twitch.  
  
“ _Rennervate_ ,” Harry whispered hoarsely as a jet of red sparks shot out of the tip of his wand.  
  
Nothing happened. He wondered how long Sirius had been in his trance with Ginny. It seemed like the minutes were ticking by slowly, as though time stood still. All that could be heard was the ticking of clock on the fireplace mantle and Teddy shuffling nervously from foot to foot.  
  
Then, in a beat, Sirius blinked. His brows furrowed downwards as deep crevices appeared in his forehead. His jaw clenched as his eyes shot around the room like lasers. He seemed to be coming back into existence.  
  
“Sirius, are you okay?” Harry murmured.  
  
Gray eyes snapped to look at him as though he was suddenly aware that there were other people in the room. The color had drained completely from his face. His fingers were tapping in a nervous manner on his knee.  
  
“I’m fine,” he spoke quietly.  
  
“What happened?” pressed Harry as his eyes searched his face for answers.  
  
“I just blacked out.”  
  
There was something about the tone of his voice that suggested he knew more than he was letting on. Sirius brought his hands up to his face and scrubbed his eyes for several seconds before turning to look at Teddy. He gave the kid a soft smile before he suggested they all go for a walk outside. A wide grin broke out on Teddy’s voice as he bounded towards the front door and grabbed a light jacket. Harry barely had time to grab him own jacket before Teddy was down the drive.  
  
Harry walked slowly with his hands stuffed in his pockets as they made their way down the abandoned road. Sirius kept pace with him with a dazed expression plastered across his features. Teddy walked briskly ahead of them. His arms were swinging in an exaggerated way as his chin tilted up to look at the moon shining brightly in the clear sky.  
  
“Can we talk about your black out?” questioned Harry. “Do you remember what happened?”  
  
“I don’t want to talk about it, Harry,” Sirius admitted.  
  
“I need to know what’s going on.”  
  
Harry looked over at his godfather with exasperation written clearly across his face. Sirius didn’t look at him. He continued to watch as Teddy marched in front of them.  
  
“I hear voices, okay?” Sirius bit out.  
  
“You hear voices during your blackouts?”  
  
“ _Yes_ , I can’t move and I hear voices and I feel like something isn’t right. It’s almost as though I’m not supposed to be where I am.”  
  
“What do you hear?” pushed Harry.  
  
“Whispers. I can’t make them out. I just distinctly remember whispers like they’re calling me, like they want me to go somewhere or do something. I don’t know. I can’t explain it because I don’t really remember it. It’s just a feeling I have when I come to.”  
  
“I don’t understand.”   
  
“That makes two of us,” Sirius sighed.  
  
“So, you wake up from a blackout and feel like something isn’t right?”  
  
“I wake up and I just feel like I shouldn’t be where I am, like someone just told me to do something but I can’t exactly remember what I was told to do. I want to do it. I have an urge to do it… but I can’t because I don’t know what it is exactly. It’s an odd feeling that I can’t explain.”  
  
“Harry, look, a bird!” Teddy shouted as he stilled and pointed up at the sky.  
  
Harry glanced upward to a bird soaring through the night air. He glanced back at his godson who was grinning broadly as though a bird was something to be thoroughly impressed by. Licking his lips, he tugged on Teddy’s arm until the boy was standing next to him. He wrapped an arm around his godson’s shoulders and tucked him tightly against his chest. He hated the full moons, especially when they wandered outside. Teddy easily got distracted at the smallest things. They continued on their walk.  
  
“How many times do you actually black out?” Harry inquired as he felt Teddy’s arm wrap around his waist.  
  
“I don’t know. A few.”  
  
“Ginny said you blacked out yesterday afternoon. Has there been more than that time and tonight?”  
  
“Yes,” Sirius answered honestly after several seconds.   
  
“Harry, can we fly some brooms tonight?” inquired Teddy, oblivious to the adults’ conversation. “We could wake up everyone and play a pick-up game of Quidditch.”  
  
“No and no,” Harry responded. “Why don’t we head back to the house and we’ll sit outside on the back porch.”  
  
“This is utterly bizarre,” Sirius commented as he leaned forward to catch a glimpse of Teddy. “Is he always like this on the full moon?”  
  
“Unfortunately,” Harry replied. “Do you see why I go to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him?”  
  
“It’s just so different than how a real werewolf acts,” Sirius started thoughtfully, his tone suggesting he was welcoming a change in conversation. “There were times when Remus would be excitable when we went out on an adventure. There were also times though when he could be downright grumpy and vicious. Remus broke my arm once on a full moon. He had my paw in his mouth and flung me like a ragdoll into a building. I don’t know how James got him under control and back to the Shrieking Shack, because I could barely walk and wasn’t much help.”  
  
“Fleur says Bill acts similarly. It’s like his mind is always turning and he can be very impulsive. I think Teddy’s age amplifies it at times, because he used to be a lot worse when he was younger. Bill doesn’t sound nearly as bad either. He said he’s able to control most of his urges.”  
  
“My dad broke your arm?” questioned Teddy as he leaned forward to catch Sirius’ eye. “What did you do?”  
  
“Nothing,” Sirius defended himself. “He was grumpy for reasons having nothing to do with me. He was in a bad mood all day that day. It carried over when he transformed.”  
  
“How did nobody know he was a werewolf? I mean, do you know how many people ask me why Harry comes to the castle once a month and where I go? I get accused of being homesick, so I just encourage it because I don’t _really_ fancy telling everyone my dad was a werewolf.”  
  
“Well, by third year, people were asking a lot of questions. James and I brewed some Polyjuice Potion. James transformed into Remus one night on a full moon and practically paraded around the whole castle for everyone to see him. We did it once every few months for a while. James and I always took turns. Then, when we became Animagi, we stopped doing it because neither one of us wanted to miss out on an adventure.”  
  
“Didn’t that other bloke you guys were friends with ever do it? The one who turned out to be a Death Eater?” Teddy inquired and Harry tightened his grip around his godson.  
  
A dark look crossed Sirius face. The man’s whole body seemed to stiffen.  
  
“Once,” Sirius said in a cold voice. “He fucked it up spectacularly, of course. He was so nervous that he kept forgetting to take the potion every hour on the hour and would start to transform so James and I had to try to hide him until he could take some more. It was such a disaster that James and I never trusted him to do it again. James never had a bad thing to say about anyone that he was friends with. I never heard him lay into Peter so hard than he did that night after everyone was in bed. We were both pissed off.”  
  
Teddy continued to ask more questions about Remus as a werewolf. They were stories that Harry could never tell the kid save for the one time in his third year he saw Remus transforming. That wasn’t a particular exciting or fun story to tell. Sirius were, by far, more entertaining albeit reckless in nature.   
  
Soon enough they were lounging on the back patio. Sirius continued to tell Teddy about their monthly adventures while at school. Teddy leaned tiredly against Harry’s side as he listened. It wasn’t until nearly four in the morning that Teddy dosed off to sleep against him. His soft snores echoed in the quiet night.


	6. St. Mungo's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge, special thanks to Arnel for beta-ing for me like usual.
> 
> Please, don't forget to leave a review. It's a small payment for the hours an author spends agonizing over their stories. It takes less than a minute. Thank you for the support.

" **Cheating Death"**

" **Chapter Six: St. Mungo's"**

Harry stood in the conference room in the Auror office on Monday afternoon to see the sheer amount of potential evidence that had been collected from Quinton Greengrass' home. A team of trainee Aurors had not yet finished sifting through all the evidence collected. Some of the more senior Aurors sifting through what had already been sorted to categorize it.

He had, somehow, managed to keep his promise to Ginny not to go into work on Sunday. He had been distracted all day and waited for Proudfoot's Patronus to glide into his parlor with some big break on the case. Nothing came and Harry vaguely wondered if Ron had actually forbidden him from being contacted. He barely registered anything that happened on Sunday. He had been in a daze, his mind reeling with thoughts of work.

The kids had been exuberantly loud the whole day. Teddy and James spent most of the day flying. Al and Lily played tag and rolled around with Padfoot in the back garden. At some point, Sirius had been roped into a tea party with Lily and a mass of stuffed animals before bed. Harry found the two of them in Lily's room drinking pretend tea with crowns on their heads. Sirius had been a good sport about the whole thing with a wide grin plastered across his face the entire time.

Now, Harry stood at work and surveyed the table filled with books and documents. Proudfoot handed him an old, leather-bound book with a grim face. The black cover of the book was grimy and felt filthy underneath his fingertips. There was no title or author anywhere on the cover. The pages were yellow and crisp. Huge chunks of paper were missing from the corners of a lot of the pages. Harry flipped through the pages slowly and carefully as to not damage the book anymore. His heart pounded in his chest as he read the chapter titles on the index page.

The first chapter was titled _Horcruxes: How to Live Forever_. He didn't need to read anymore to know what kind of Dark Magic the book contained. His eyes scanned the rest of the chapter names until he got to chapter seven entitled _Veil of Death: Bringing Loved Ones Back from the Beyond_. A heavy lump formed in his throat as he slowly flipped through the pages.

Pen marks marred the pages with notes in the margins to sentences underlined and select phrases circled. It reminded him of Snape's old potions book that he had been in possession of during his sixth year with how badly marked up the pages were.

The text detailed how an act of sacrifice had to be committed in order to draw someone from beyond the Veil. An eye for an eye. A life for a life. Harry swallowed down the bile in his throat as he read. A page had conveniently been ripped from the book as soon as it began to describe how a sigil in the sacrifice's blood needed to be drawn. He already knew that Greengrass had taken the page to Rookwood. He had no doubt that the picture they discovered in Rookwood's cell would fit perfectly with the tear marks. The only thing that didn't seem to make since was that the murder had been committed _after_ Sirius had been pulled from the Veil. It was as though the ritual had been done backwards. Perhaps, that was why Sirius had exited the Veil and not Greengrass' original target… he hadn't the guts to murder for the ritual initially.

Harry continued reading as dread filled every inch of his body. It only seemed to get worse. If a sacrifice wasn't given at the time of the ritual, balance would be restored on its own. A life had to be taken to give a life. Harry wandered if Burke was murdered for no reason and someone else would turn up dead to restore the balance.

Suddenly, the quiet of the conference room was shattered by enraged shouting in the corridor outside. Harry sat the book down carefully on the table before he exited the room. He immediately saw a red-faced Gareth Greengrass screaming at Riley Hunter, a trainee Auror, who looked petrified by the interaction. Harry strolled over with his fists clenched at his sides and his jaw tight.

"Unspeakable Greengrass, I would appreciate it if you didn't barge into my department shouting your head off at my trainees," snapped Harry as he placed a comforting hand on the young Auror's shoulder.

Hunter jolted under the touch as wide eyes darted towards her boss. She crept back from the group and joined the herd of Aurors who had circled around the two departmental heads to watch as though they expected a full-on battle to occur.

"You raided my grandson's house!" Greengrass hollered.

"Did you know that your grandson has been visiting a convicted murderer and Death Eater in Azkaban?" questioned Harry coldly. "We have found some interesting connections between the two of them lately."

"For all of Augustus Rookwood's faults, he is _still_ Quinton's godfather. Are you telling me that he can't visit his godfather? That Death Eaters aren't allowed to have family visit them in prison?" Greengrass challenged. "I do not condone anything Augustus has done but he is still the boy's godfather."

"While I cannot disclose any details about our investigation, there is more than just visits between the two that we have uncovered," Harry snapped.

"You are walking on a very thin line, Auror Potter," Greengrass seethed. "You may think that you are untouchable, that you are royalty amongst your peers, but there are plenty of people who see right through your façade. There are plenty of people who think you have been given too much free reign, too much power! You are blatantly abusing your position to go after my family!"

"I'm not going after your family!" Harry roared loudly.

The group of Aurors that had congregated took a few collective steps back. It wasn't often that Harry lost his cool at work. When he did, however, it was usually in a vicious rage. People passing by the Auror office had started filing into the department, some lingering outside to catch a glimpse of what was going on. There was no doubt that the shouting match was ringing throughout level two.

"I am working a case! A murder investigation! A murder that happened in your very department!" Harry continued in his tirade.

"Then, by all means, let me do my job! I demand that Sirius Black be brought to my department first thing tomorrow morning for testing and a potential correction!" Greengrass seethed.

"Fuck you!" Harry snarled. "A potential correction? What? Are you going to shove him back through the Veil and kill an innocent man?"

"It is unnatural that he is here! The mistake should be corrected immediately before any damage can be had!"

"You go near Sirius Black and I will murder you myself," Harry hissed in a dangerously low voice.

"Oh, I see you don't like it when someone comes after your family, do you? Stay away from my grandson!"

"Your grandson is currently under investigation!"

"Then, I will be getting a court order for Sirius Black to be returned to the Department of Mysteries!" Greengrass snarled.

"Get the hell out of my office!" Harry roared as he pointed towards the door where a large group of wizards and witches attempted to peer in.

Greengrass sneered nastily one last time before he turned on his heels to march out of the department. He hollered at the people in the doorway to move. They all scrambled backwards to get out of his way. Murmurs broke out inside and outside the department. Harry shook with rage, his limbs twitching involuntarily. There were a good hundred pairs of eyes on him.

"Get back to work!" Harry ordered.

"You heard him!" Ron roared from somewhere behind him. "Don't just stand there like your heads are up your arses! The show is over!"

Harry strolled through the department as the Aurors scrambled to look busy. Ron nodded his head to his best mate to indicate they should talk in his office. The two often didn't need words to communicate. They could silently talk through a variety of gestures and expressions. Harry didn't need to speak to Ron to know what was on his mind for it was also on his mind. They needed to bring Quinton Greengrass in for questioning and make it abundantly clear he was to stay in the country.

Harry entered Ron's office first and immediately casted a Silencing Charm around the room. Ron shut the door with more force than he probably intended to. They stood facing one another, both seething.

"I'll grab a team and arrest Greengrass before grandpa dearest smuggles him out of the country," Ron commented.

"No, we can't arrest him. We have nothing concrete to hold him on for the murder. We can bring him in for questioning and we can charge him for illegal possession of Dark materials, but that's about it."

"That's just a hefty fine though."

"No, it will also allow us to prevent him from gaining access to international Portkeys and traveling outside of the country. That includes putting a stop to him visiting Azkaban. We can enact certain restrictions on him because of the seriousness of what was found in his home. It can buy us enough time to form our case against him," Harry reasoned.

"You don't think Gareth Greengrass would actually be dumb enough to go after Sirius, do you?" questioned Ron.

"I don't know. Look, I'm going to run home quick and speak to Sirius to ensure he doesn't leave the house alone. He should be safe within the wards. Go get Greengrass junior into custody. If I'm not back when you get here, start the interrogation without me. Start on what we found in the house. Wait for me to question him about Burke's murder, alright? I want to be there."

Harry's heart pounded wildly in his chest as he made his way through the Ministry to the Apparition point. He knew that Andromeda was to check in on Sirius at some point in the day. He only hoped that they were at home and didn't go anywhere. He didn't trust Greengrass not to pull something drastic, especially not after Ron brought Quinton Greengrass in for questioning.

It took a good twenty minutes before Harry unlocked his front door and walked into his home. He sighed in relief when he heard voices coming from the parlor. He dashed through the house until he saw Sirius and Andromeda sitting together. They both looked up at him in concern.

"What are you doing home so early?" questioned Sirius.

"Is something wrong with Teddy?" Andromeda asked in a slight panic.

"I hate to do this, Sirius," Harry started as he entered the room fully, "but I have to insist that you do not leave this house without me."

"What? Why?"

"Gareth Greengrass is threatening to return you back to the Veil," Harry commented gravely.

Sirius paled instantly, his fingers tightening around his cup of tea. Harry could hear the blood pumping wildly in his ears. Even Andromeda looked slightly sick at the news.

"So, I suppose murder runs in the family then," Sirius whispered.

"Honestly, Sirius, this isn't a joke!" snapped Andromeda.

"Look, I appreciate the heads up that Greengrass is targeting me, but I'm not going to hole myself up in a house again," Sirius said with a sigh.

"Sirius, regardless of whether or not Greengrass is threatening you, you shouldn't be leaving the house alone right now anyways because of your black outs," Harry snapped.

"What black outs?" inquired Andromeda.

"I'm _fine_. I've survived two wars, Azkaban, and a nice stint in the land of the dead. I can handle a few black outs and some pompous pureblooded git out to get me," Sirius commented. "Don't think I don't know what you've been doing, Harry. Ginny working from home last week, Andromeda showing up to mind me today, and you're home all day tomorrow. Who's coming on Wednesday? Did you give Ron the day off or are you going to ship me off with the kids to Molly's?"

Harry's jaw tightened. He could still feel the anger coursing through him from Greengrass' threats. Sirius not taking them seriously only made his anger boil. He took a calming breath.

"This isn't a game, Sirius," Harry spoke evenly. "Ron's bringing in Quinton Greengrass as we speak to charge him with illegal possession of Dark materials and we're going to begin questioning him on the murder. I _need_ you to lay low for a little, alright? I'm not saying you can't leave the house. This isn't Grimmauld Place. I would just prefer you didn't go out alone. I'd like to go with you. That's all I'm asking."

"He's being reasonable, Sirius," Andromeda added gently. "He cares for you. He's watching out for you just like Flea and James used to."

"Who's Flea?" questioned Harry as his eyes darted between the cousins.

"Your grandfather," Sirius said softly.

Harry's brow furrowed. Nobody had ever talked about Harry's grandparents. In fact, the only thing he honestly knew about them was that they had taken Sirius in when he ran away from home. The name stirred in his mind. His grandfather had been Flea Potter? He filed that information away in the back of his mind with the intention on revisiting it with Sirius later.

"Look, I have to get back to the Ministry. I want to questions Greengrass myself. Just… please, Sirius, can you just lie low for a few days until we figure out what's going on with the Department of Mysteries and the Veil? I've already lost you once," Harry said as his voice cracked slightly and he instantly hated himself at the display of weakness. "I don't want to lose you again. I see the way you are with my kids. They've grown very used to you in the past several days. I think they'd be devasted just as much as I would."

"Well, at least this place is a lot nicer than Grimmauld Place. A lot brighter, no bad memories, no deranged house-elf," Sirius said with a forced grin.

Harry gave him a grim smile before he bid his farewells. He hated leaving. There were so many more things he wanted to say, things he wanted to ask, things that he felt like they should have talked about years ago but never did.

Harry made it back to the Ministry with the interrogation already underway. He slipped into the room silently and took a seat next to Ron as he continued with his line of questioning about the origins of the illegal books that were found within the home.

"I didn't even know they were there," Greengrass seethed. "It's an old family home that I haven't fully cleaned out. Most of the rooms have stayed untouched."

He denied knowledge of everything Ron and Harry asked. The books had been there forever. He had no idea where some of the pages had gone. He had no idea the contents of the books. He had no knowledge of Dark Magic. He had never performed Dark Magic, had never even read about it. The books were old family heirlooms. The excuses went on forever.

"We got a little black leather-bound book from your home," Harry spoke evenly. "There was a page ripped out in a chapter about how to bring dead people back to life using the Veil of Death. A page was ripped out… a page we found in Augustus Rookwood's cell. You've been to see Rookwood quite a lot lately."

"He's my godfather," Greengrass spoke with bared teeth. "Is it a crime to have a godfather?"

"Why would he have a page from a highly illegal book in his jailcell?" Ron pressed.

"I don't know. Maybe he had it on him when he was arrested."

"Oh, so he's had a piece of paper on him for fifteen years that he ripped out of a book that was in your house and it was never discovered when he was taken to prison?" questioned Ron in a mocking tone. "Makes perfect sense. They only do strip searches in prison. They catalog all belongings. You're right though, an Auror probably fucked up."

"What happened in the Department of Mysteries?" questioned Harry as he leaned back.

"I don't know how Sirius Black exited the Veil and I don't know who killed Unspeakable Burke," Greengrass said evenly.

"Do you want to hear my theory?" asked Harry. "I think that you wanted to bring someone back to life. I think your godfather told you about a Dark Magic ritual to do it. I think he told you where to find that book or maybe your family already had it. It doesn't matter really. I think you read all about what to do but got cold feet when you found out you had to kill someone. I think you attempted it anyways because what the hell, am I right? If it worked, great. If it didn't work, well, maybe you'd have the guts to go through with it at a later date."

Greengrass stared at Harry. His face was stoic, his hands curled around the armrests so tightly his hands were white. He seemed insanely tense and didn't dare to move.

"I think you were surprised when Sirius Black came out of the Veil," Harry continued. "I think you were also disappointed it wasn't who you wanted. I think you went running to your godfather the very next morning. You were there first thing as soon as visiting hours commenced. I think your godfather told you just how badly you messed up. Dark Magic doesn't come without a price and the price is often deadly and terribly. I think you tried to restore the balance yourself and killed Unspeakable Burke. Do you think it worked? Do you think you restored the balance? Or do you think another innocent person is going to die because you decided to mess with the Veil?"

"Am I under arrest?" Greengrass croaked.

"You're being charged with illegal possession of Dark materials," Ron commented lazily. "Is there something else we should arrest you for?"

"If you are acting on the orders of a Death Eater, you could get a reduced sentence for your crimes," Harry spoke calmly. "Are you working on the orders of Augustus Rookwood?"

There was a knock on the door. Harry turned around to see Proudfoot poking his head into the interrogation room. He jerked his head back to indicate he wanted a word. Harry rose from his chair and left the interrogation room.

"Ron asked me to speak to Kingsley," Proudfoot whispered. "He's authorized us to hold Greengrass for forty-eight hours. If we can't charge him within those forty-eight hours, we have to let him go."

"When does our forty-eight hours begin?" questioned Harry.

"As soon as the interrogation is over and we lock him in a Ministry cell."

"How pissed would Kingsley be if we extended this interrogation as long as possible?"

"There's a line, Harry, and you have to be careful not to cross it," hissed Proudfoot. "I know this is personal for you but you don't want to give Gareth Greengrass any reason to discredit you or this investigation."

"I want him interrogated until midnight tonight. That will give us all day Tuesday and Wednesday to get some concrete evidence. We need to place him in the Ministry the night that Burke died."

"There's nothing that tracks who comes and goes in the Ministry unless they're visitors," Proudfoot commented.

"Get a list of everyone who was working the graveyard shift at the Ministry that night. All levels of workers. If we can get someone who saw Greengrass and can give us that Pensieve memory, it would be huge."

"I'll get a team together. We'll start working around the clock."

"I'm not going to be in tomorrow. I've already made commitments at St. Mungo's," Harry told him. "I want updates, Proudfoot. Send me a Patronus with even the slightest news. Send an owl to my house. I'll be working from home for half the day. If I need to come in Tuesday night, I will. You're the most senior Auror, here so I'm trusting you to find and interview everyone who worked that night. I need you to figure out another way to tie him here that night if we can't get a concrete memory. I'll have Darby get you a copy of the crime scene photos first thing tomorrow."

Harry looked down at his watch. It was late afternoon and the thought of being in the office for the next nine hours was not appealing in the slightest. He sent a Patronus to Ginny to tell her not to expect him home until late before going off to make two cups of coffee for him and Ron seeing as they were in for a long night.

The hours ticked by as Greengrass was questioned. He stayed stoic and tight lipped. Grunts and noncommittal answers left his lips. Beads of sweat formulated on his brow. Ron and Harry drilled him for hours on end about his work in the Department of Mysteries, the night Sirius was pulled from the Veil, the night that Unspeakable Burke was murdered, and the illegal materials found in his home.

It was a quarter to midnight when Harry called it quits. Ron and a couple of Aurors on nightshift took him to a Ministry holding cell and explained the process of what was happening. Harry walked through the Auror office to see Proudfoot and a team of senior Aurors in one of the conference rooms going over a mountain of paperwork.

It was half past midnight when Harry finally arrived home. He reset the wards around the house before he crept up the stairs as quietly as he could as not to wake anyone. The lights were all off in the house so he knew even Sirius, who never seemed to sleep much, was in bed.

He pushed open the door to the master bedroom to see Ginny sprawled across the middle of the bed. Her faded and torn Gryffindor Quidditch shirt was twisted on her slight frame. A foot dangled out from underneath the sheet. Her hair spread like a halo around her head. He chuckled softly at her open mouth and soft snores.

He quickly stripped down to his boxers before he crawled into bed next to her, too exhausted to bother with pajamas or brushing his teeth. He nudged Ginny softly as she was half on his side of the bed. She stirred, her hand finding his chest. Then, like a rubber band, she snapped fully awake and looked at him.

"Shh, it's late," he whispered.

He snaked an arm up around her shoulders and tugged her down towards him. Her cheek found his chest as one of her arms draped across his stomach. He settled into the mattress as he held her close to him, his grip firm on her shoulder.

"Is everything alright?" she whispered softly as her fingers trailed along his side.

"We brought Greengrass in for questioning. We uncovered some highly illegal Dark texts in his house from the raid. We charged him with possession of illegal materials but that's just a hefty fine. He was tight lipped about everything else. We have him in a Ministry holding cell for the next forty-eight hours," Harry explained with a yawn.

"Do you think he did it?" inquired Ginny.

"We have no concrete evidence," Harry said wearily as he ran his free through his messy locks. "All the circumstantial evidence points to it."

"Why do you think he did it? Why do you think he pulled Sirius from the Veil? Why kill someone after the fact?"

Harry sighed as he pulled his glasses off his face and reached to set them on the bedside table. Those had been questions he had been thinking about nonstop ever since he saw Sirius in that hospital bed.

"I don't think he meant to pull Sirius from the Veil. I think he was meaning to pull someone else," Harry admitted.

"Who do you think?"

Ginny propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at Harry. Her hair tickled against his shoulder.

"Well, he's working with Augustus Rookwood."

"You think he's trying to bring back Voldemort," Ginny said in a dry, almost dull tone.

"You don't hear the Death Eaters at Azkaban, Gins," Harry spoke softly. "They think he'll come back again because he did once before. None of them know about his Horcruxes. They will try if they can escape Azkaban or have someone like Greengrass do it for them."

"The Greengrasses were never Death Eaters though, Harry," Ginny replied as she dragged her fingers across his chest.

"People switch sides. People's allegiances shift. Severus Snape went from being a Death Eater to a war hero. Peter Pettigrew went from being an Order member to a spy. Andromeda Tonks never got involved in the first war but became an ally to the Order in the second."

"I think you worry too much. You are the epitome of a glass half empty person. You see Death Eaters and danger around every corner. You always jump to the worst-case scenario."

"How can I not?" Harry whispered. "My whole life I've only ever seen the bad in people… the very worst of what humanity could be. What pulled Sirius out of the Veil was very ancient, very Dark Magic, Gin. Greengrass had a book that detailed how to pull someone out of the Veil. I worry that Sirius could be severely affected or altered because of magic that has enabled him to be here."

"Tell me."

Harry sucked in a deep breath. He raised a hand to tuck a piece of flaming red hair behind her ear. Fear had been eating away at Harry nearly all day: the magic that had been involved, Sirius' trance-like states, the murder. He swallowed a heavy lump that resided in his throat.

"A life for a life," Harry whispered. "It's what all Dark Magic seems to require. The murder of the Unspeakable that was committed… it was done so to balance out Sirius being pulled from the Veil. The sigil on the floor is supposed to represent payment. One person for another. I think Greengrass messed up originally. He was supposed to sacrifice someone before he pulled Sirius out of the Veil but didn't. According to the text, if someone was not sacrificed, then someone would randomly die as repayment. There would be no control over who could die. I think he got cold feet and didn't want to murder anyone but then started to worry _who_ would die in payment for Sirius being pulled out. So, instead of waiting to see and risk it being someone close to him, he killed the nearest Unspeakable to complete the ritual."

"So, do you think that's that? Do you think anyone else will die?" asked Ginny in barely above a whisper.

"I don't know. Someone else could very well die because the sacrifice wasn't done correctly. There could be an innocent person who could still die in repayment for Sirius being alive. The thing that worries me the most is that I highly doubt that Sirius was the original target to pull from the Veil. Now that he has a handle on how to perform the ritual, who's to say he won't try to do it again? What if he's willing and able to murder someone else to pull who he originally wanted out of the Veil?"

"You think he'd try the ritual again? You fear the original target to pull from the Veil was Voldemort?" Ginny clarified.

"I don't know if it's Voldemort. I doubt it's anyone good," Harry murmured. "We can't tell Sirius."

"Tell Sirius what exactly? About the ritual?"

"I don't want him knowing that one or potentially two people may die for him to be here."

"Do you think that's why he's blacking out? The ritual wasn't done with an official sacrifice as intended?" asked Ginny.

"I have no idea," he admitted. "The dead shouldn't come back to life. It's unnatural. It doesn't… the story of the Three Brothers and the Resurrection Stone, I'm assuming you've read that?"

"Yes, but, Harry, it's different. Sirius was never actually killed. He was Stunned in the Department of Mysteries when he fell through the Veil."

"I'm worried he'll only get worse," Harry croaked.

It had been a fear of his ever since he heard of his trance-like state from Ginny. He was supposed to be dead. The dead can't come back to life. It couldn't all be sunshine and rainbows. Things in life rarely were. What if the black outs got worse, grew longer? What if one time Sirius didn't come to from one of those black outs and was in a trance-like state forever? Harry didn't think he could bear losing his godfather again.

"We enjoy the time we have with him now, then," Ginny said firmly though he could see the fear shining in her eyes as well. "We don't know he'll get worse. He could get better. He could stay the same. It may not get worse until fifty years from now. We don't know anything, Harry. We should get him an appointment at St. Mungo's about the black outs. Maybe they can solve them."

"No, I agree. He's going to see the Mind Healer tomorrow. I'll get him a medical evaluation for later in the week."

"I was thinking," Ginny began as her fingertips continued to trail along his chest, "about a more permanent solution for Sirius."

"What do you mean a more permanent solution?" Harry asked with furrowed brows and a frown.

"He can't live with us forever. Eventually, the novelty of sleepovers is going to wear off for the boys and they'll want their own rooms back. We have a lot of land around the house for privacy. We can build him a little cottage next door. That way he has his own space but he can walk over whenever he wants. I have no doubt he'd always be over here anyways, which is fine, but it would also let him have a break from the chaos that our children cause."

"What about his black outs? I don't love the idea of him living alone while he's having black outs."

"I'm not saying build a house and force him out tomorrow. He can stay here as long as he needs. I'm thinking more long term," Ginny replied. "Teddy will be going back to Hogwarts in two months which will free up a room in the house if he's still not better by then."

"No, you're right. I like the idea of him living next door. I think he'll like it too, especially with an open invitation to come over whenever he likes."

"He's family. Of course, he'll have an open invitation," Ginny confirmed. "I really need to go to bed. I have to be at work early tomorrow. You're still good to take Lily and Sirius to St. Mungo's tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, I already told my secretary and Ron."

Harry snaked a hand to the back of her neck and pulled her face towards his. Her head tilted automatically to the right and their lips met. He closed his eyes and sank into the warmth that the kiss brought him. He savored the kiss, escaping momentarily from his stressful day. Everything seemed to slip away and his mind cleared.

Ginny pulled away slightly before showering his cheek with soft featherlike kisses. Harry rested a hand on her shoulder and gently rolled her onto her back. In a split second, he was on top of her, straddling her waist. He completely let go of every ounce of stress, worry, and anxiety he had been feeling for the past several days. He found himself lost in her as every muscle in his body finally relaxed.

* * *

The next morning, Harry Apparated to the Apparition point two blocks away from St. Mungo's with Lily clenched tightly in his arms. Her face was buried into the crook of his neck, her hands clenched her father's t-shirt tightly. She _hated_ Apparating. It was Harry's preferred method of transportation and he knew that she would get used to it overtime. Teddy, James, and Al weren't even phased by the sensation any longer.

There was another soft _pop!_ that sounded next to him. Harry turned lazily to his right to see Sirius had just arrived with a frown on his face. He had pulled back his shoulder length hair into a ponytail and sported a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt to blend in while they took the short walk to St. Mungo's.

Harry grinned up at his godfather. He was worried about not Apparating with Sirius but didn't feel comfortable taking two alongside him – especially when one was his two-year-old daughter who was known to panic on occasion during the process. There was a small part of him that thought Sirius would skip out on his Mind Healer appointment.

"Lily and I will drop you off at your appointment," Harry explained as he motioned for Sirius to follow him out of the alleyway. "Then, I'll take her to her eye appointment in the children's ward. I'm assuming you'll be done before us, so do you want to meet us there? You can see what kind of glasses she picks out."

Harry lowered the wiggling girl to the ground when they reached the sidewalk. She brushed the wrinkles out of her sundress before looking up at her father and tugging at his sleeve while whining his name. He looked down at the girl who pointed to her lopsided bow with a frown. Harry crouched down and did his best to straighten the bow headband on her head. Once satisfied it was good enough, he stood up and grasped her hand into his.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it," Sirius said dryly.

They were nearly a block away from St. Mungo's when he happened. Harry tensed as soon as he saw the camera. He tugged Lily closer to him until she was against his leg. He bowed his head to the ground, watching his and Lily's feet step one in front of the other. He dared a glance at Sirius who seemed oblivious to the assault that was about to happened. He swallowed a lump in his throat and threw up his hand to cover his face as the camera flashed brightly.

"Mister Potter! Mister Potter!"

Harry didn't miss a stride in his step as he reached down and effortless swept Lily off her feet and into his arms. It was a movement he had practiced since he was nineteen years old and Teddy was old enough to walk on his own. Each one of his kids hated the camera flashing in their faces, hated the screaming of their names, hated how they were accosted no matter where they went in the Wizarding World. Lily, instinctively, buried her head into his chest. Her little arms tightened painfully around his neck.

There was now a group of wizards with cameras swarming around them. Harry held Lily securely on his right side while his left hand shielded his face from the flash. He looked to his side to see that Sirius was no longer beside him. Craning around, still walking to get out of the herd of cameras, he noticed his godfather trailing behind him with his brow furrowed and a disgusted look on his face.

"Is this your youngest, Lily, Mister Potter?"

"Are you and your wife going to have any more kids?"

"It's been reported there was a murder in the Ministry and you're leading the case. Auror Potter, do you have any comments?"

"Mister Potter, how do you feel about being named _Witch Weekly's Most Successful Thirty Under Thirty_?"

Harry spotted Purge and Dowse, Ltd.'s weathered red bricks through the cracks in his fingers. He heaved a heavy sigh as more people seem to swarm around him as though they knew exactly where he was going. They were going to try to block him from entering and bombard him with more questions. It was a common tactic they used to get him to talk. He just needed to get through the window and he'd be safely away from the press. He had never been more relieved by the wards that banned cameras from within the hospital walls.

"Mister Potter, is it true that you and your wife are having marital problems?"

They had formed a line in front of him, effectively blocking him from walking anymore. He vaguely was reminded of playing Bulldogs in primary school, his little body never being able to break through the connected hands. He often tried to dive under the linked arms which normally got him beat up by Dudley for cheating. Harry lowered his hand, his face void of any emotion, as the flashes now were more frantic to get a good picture of his face.

"Get out of my way," Harry snapped.

"Mister Potter, are you going to the _Witch Weekly_ party with your wife next weekend?"

"Mister Potter, how do you feel about coming in second in _Bewitching Monthly's Summer's Hottest Wizards_ after Applyby Arrow's Keeper Farrell Victors?"

"Move!" Harry bellowed.

Normally, Harry would push his way through the throng of photographers while angrily shouting at them. Except, he never felt comfortable doing so with a child in his arms. He was always afraid someone would make a grab for one of his kids so he tried to keep from getting too close when the kids were with him.

"Is it true that your wife is going to play in the Orphaned Children's Foundation Charity Quidditch Game in August?"

"Move now before I draw my wand!" snapped Harry, a growl escaping his throat.

"Is it true you're accepting a seat on the Board of Directors for St. Mungo's?"

Harry could feel Sirius lingering behind him. He turned around to face his godfather and proceeded to pass Lily into his arms. He took her clumsily, obviously shocked by the scene in front of him. He, naturally, wrapped one arm under her bum and his other hand rested on the back of her red locks to keep her face securely hidden from the cameras. Once he was sure Sirius was fine with his daughter, he turned back to the mass of cameras who were now focused on Sirius and Lily. He pulled out his wand and motioned it threateningly.

"I'm going to start arresting people for loitering outside of the hospital. You know you're not supposed to go within a block of St. Mungo's and you're obviously violating that. So, you have five seconds to let us through or else you can spend the night in a holding cell at the Ministry and get your press credentials stripped for violating the law," Harry said with a snarl worked on his face.

The photographers started to disburse, taking steps back to let them through. The line of questions and the flashes of cameras didn't cease, however, as more questions were rapidly fired at him about work, his family, who the man was that held his daughter. Harry reached back and gripped Sirius by the elbow and they made their way to the abandoned department store window. They stepped briskly through the glass and entered the hospital.

"Merlin, Harry, what the fuck was that?" Sirius asked in a low tone as they passed through the reception area.

"I can't go anywhere in the Wizarding World without being swarmed by photographers and journalists," Harry replied bitterly. "It's the thanks I get for defeating Voldemort."

Lily's head lifted up to look around the hospital. She seemed content to stay in Sirius' arms, her eyes darting around the hospital to take in the new place. Her little legs swung merrily as Sirius continued to hold her tightly to his chest. He looked shaken by the encounter and Harry couldn't blame him. It had taken Harry awhile to adjust to the media attention after the war. Mostly, he avoided the Wizarding World hot spots if he could help it. They went out to dinner at Muggle establishments, shopped in Muggle stores, did most of their Wizarding shopping through owl order.

Once they reached the Mental Health Ward, Harry went up to sign Sirius in as he took a seat on a plush sofa with Lily curled up at his side. They were talking in low tones to one another as he adjusted the bow on her head. The reception witch gave Harry a clipboard and a quill and told him they'd be with them shortly. Harry made his way over to his daughter and godfather to catch the end of their conversation.

"Cam'was bad," Lily said seriously.

"Yes, Elle, those cameras were bad," Sirius agreed with her in a somber tone.

Harry took a seat on the sofa next to his daughter and held out the clipboard to his godfather. Sirius gently pushed Lily away from his chest as he took the forms and the quill to fill out the information.

"I don't need a Mind Healer," Sirius said for the fiftieth time that day.

"There's nothing wrong with seeing one," Harry reasoned. "You know, I saw one after the war for a while."

"Did you really?" Sirius questioned as he looked up briefly from the forms. "How'd that go?"

"Surprisingly, better than I thought it would. Ron and George basically dragged me here too. They said I needed to deal with my childhood trauma and my annoying self-reproach," Harry tried to remain casual as he said it. "I saw one weekly for a good year before it was once a month for another year."

Lily stood on the sofa at this point with her little fingers playing with Sirius' ponytail. The older man didn't seem to either notice or mind as he continued to fill out the paperwork with a slight frown on his features. She giggled madly as she started to tickle him on the back of his neck as she obviously enjoyed pestering him.

Five minutes later, there was an odd humming that filled his ears. Sirius' head snapped up and he looked nervously over at his godson. Harry knew immediately his godfather had been called back. The Mental Health Ward, for the sake of privacy, made it impossible to hear the name of the person being called back except the named person.

"I'll see you after your appointment, okay?" Harry said as he gave his godfather a tight smile. "Just… go in with an open mind, alright?"

Sirius nodded numbly as he stood up, the clipboard clenched in his hands, as he made his way to the witch who stood by the open door across the waiting room. Harry watched as he went as Lily waved and shouted, "Buh bye!" Glancing down at his watch, he realized they had ten minutes to get to the children's ward. Scooping his daughter up in his arms, he made his way across the hospital.

Harry had never been to a wizarding optometrist before. Ginny had taken James for the past four years to get his eyes checked. Harry, when he went, always went to a Muggle optometrist so he wouldn't be recognized. He had no idea what to expect with his daughter.

They were called back a little past their appointment time and Harry stood next to the big chair that Lily bounced happily on. The optometrist stepped in front of her with a magnifying glass type object. He instructed Lily to look at it and she was instantly mesmerized. Harry had never seen her sit so still before. She stared, almost as though she were in a daze, her eyes wide. The optometrist flicked his thumb along a button on the bottom and the glass changed through various bright colors. He looked through the magnifying glass, making small noises in the back of his throat. Harry shifted, his arms crossed over his chest, as he watched the scene in front of him.

"She definitely needs glasses. She's nearsighted," he said after about ten minutes of peering into her eyes. "She's developing a bit of a lazy eye. You should have brought her in months ago."

"What does that mean?" Harry frowned.

"Just something to keep an eye on. The glasses may help her correct it on its own. If not, then we may have to do a little spell work on her eye to correct it."

He pulled the magnifying glass away from Lily and the girl blinked several times with a confused look crossing her freckly face. She looked up at her father and began to stand in the chair. Harry reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulders so she wouldn't tumble to the ground.

"How bad are her eyes exactly?"

"Very bad. She's to wear the glasses around the clock. She may struggle the first week as her eyes get adjusted, may cry that her head hurts, but as long as she's wearing them consistently, that will pass quickly."

"Alright," Harry said feeling out of his element.

Ginny was always the one who took the kids to all of their appointments. There were times when Harry would join them if he could get away from work, especially when the kids were babies, but the majority of it had always fallen on Ginny's shoulders. Harry realized, for the first time ever, that he was glad. He had no idea what to ask or say. He knew if Ginny had been there, she would have gotten a plethora of information. She always told him about the kids' appointments with such detail and depth that it never occurred to him that she had been the one asking questions and the information just wasn't presented to her.

"It will take about twenty minutes to get the lenses ready. Why don't you two go look at frames and pick out whatever the little lady wants?"

Harry led Lily to the girl's section of the frames. He saw a display of vibrant, sparkly frames on display in the middle of the section. He led Lily straight to them knowing his daughter would want the flashiest pair imaginable. His daughter squealed in delight as she pointed excitedly to a pair of hot pink oval glasses that sparkled violently in the light. He helped her place the frames on her face. She immediately whipped around to look at herself in the mirror.

"DADA!" she squealed.

"Do you like those, Lily?" he asked with a small chuckle, a fond smile on his face.

"Looking good, Elle," Sirius' voice rang behind him.

Harry whipped around to see his godfather standing behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. Sirius crouched down as Lily skipped towards him and giggled as she adjusted her glasses the same way she had seen her brother and father do multiple times a day.

"Do you think I could pull off a pair like that?" Sirius asked quietly.

Lily smiled up at him and babbled something that Harry couldn't understand. He was pretty sure he heard the word _pink_ though in the midst of nonsense words.

"How did it go?" Harry inquired.

"It was fine," Sirius replied as he stood up to his full height and held out a hand for Lily to take.

"Do they want you to go back?"

"Of course, they want me to go back," Sirius said bitterly. "Apparently, I have childhood trauma, survivor's guilt, reckless behavior tendencies, and difficulty dealing with change."

"They got all that out of a thirty-minute session?" Harry asked incredulously.

"They may have already had a file on me because your grandparents made me come see a Mind Healer after I ran away from home," Sirius said nonchalantly with a wave of his hand that obviously meant he didn't want to discuss it. "They've bumped me up to hour sessions from now on because I'm so special."

They walked around for a while, looking at other frames but Lily's heart was set on the glittery pink ones. She refused to take them off, even as they sat in the chairs in the waiting room as they waited for the lenses to finish up. Sirius read her some children's book she had grabbed from the bookshelf in the waiting area in a low voice. She excitedly pointed to the pictures of animals and happily made the appropriate noises. Well, mostly appropriate noises.

Harry looked out of the office to see Draco Malfoy walking past the corridor with a fragile looking brunette at his side. She looked pale, sickly. They were talking to one another, frowns etched deep onto their features. Harry found himself staring out the window at them and barely registered Lily poking him in the cheek as she made a niffler noise in his ear.

The woman only came up to Malfoy's shoulder. She was petite and Malfoy towered over her. The usual coldness that was normally splashed across his features was oddly missing as he talked to the woman. He leaned down, his shoulders slumping forward, and kissed the woman chastely on the lips. They seemed to bid farewell before she walked away from him. Malfoy looked at her longingly as she left, a miserable look crossing over him.

"Do you mind watching Lily for a few minutes?" Harry asked his godfather.

"Yeah, I can watch her. What's wrong?"

Sirius tugged on Lily's arm to get her to sit down next to him on the bench seat. She snuggled up into his side as he wrapped an arm securely around her. Harry merely smiled and bid him thanks before he made his way out of the optometrist's office. Malfoy stood with his hands in his pockets with a frown etched deep onto his features and his shoulders still slumped forward.

"Malfoy," Harry called as the man turned around.

A sigh escaped his lips as he shot Harry a look of contempt. His normal coldness appeared on his face. He seemed to tense immediately.

"You told me to watch for signs that something wasn't right with Sirius," Harry began. "He's blacking out. He can't move, doesn't blink, doesn't even look like he's breathing."

"He was Stunned for fifteen years, Potter. Who knows what sort of after effects that could have on a person," Malfoy replied coolly.

"I tried to revive him as though he were Stunned and nothing happened."

"That means nothing. It could still could be a lingering effect."

"He's hearing voices," Harry pushed. "Voices that he can't understand. He had urges to do something but can't remember what he should be doing."

"Hearing voices would have nothing to do with after effects of being Stunned. That sounds like a Veil issue."

"What do you know about the Veil of Death exactly? Did Greengrass tell you anything of importance when you were treating Sirius?" questioned Harry as his eyes flickered back to the optometrist's office and saw his godfather reading Lily another book through the window.

"Am I under some sort of suspicion?"

"Should you be?"

"Well, I heard you raided Quinton Greengrass' house over the weekend and he was arrested last night. He's my brother-in-law, but I am sure you already know that."

"He wasn't arrested. He's merely in custody for forty-eight hours. We took him in for questioning and charged him for illegal possession of Dark texts," Harry explained impatiently. "Look, I'm not out to get you or your wife. I don't think either one of you had anything to do with what happened in the Department of Mysteries. I do expect you to tell me if either Gareth or Quinton Greengrass said anything to you that could be useful in our investigation. He's being suspected of performing very illegal, very Dark Magic as well as committing murder. Lying to me isn't going to be good for you."

Malfoy stood very still, his jaw tightening. He glanced around the corridor to see nobody really paying attention to the pair. He sighed heavily.

"Can we talk about this in my office?" Malfoy whispered.

"I'm here with Sirius and my daughter," Harry commented. "I don't feel comfortable leaving Sirius alone with her for too long with the way he blacks out. Do you mind if he joins us? This is all unofficial, nothing on record. At least, not yet."

"Fine. Bring the mangy mutt. My office is on the fourth floor."

"Give me a few moments and we'll be up. We're waiting on my daughter's glasses to be finished."

Malfoy gave him a look that clearly read he didn't care before he strolled past Harry without another word. Harry watched him go as his Healer robes billowed through the halls of the hospital. He turned to return to where Sirius and Lily waited for him. Upon entering the office, the receptionist immediately waved a hand in his direction.

"Mister Potter, your daughter's glasses are finished," the female receptionist called towards him as soon as he stepped back into the office.

Harry made his way over to the front desk and called Lily over to join him. She trotted over happily with a large grin spread across her face. He carefully took off the pink glasses, causing Lily to whine, and handed them to the woman who popped in the lenses quickly before handing them back. He helped Lily slide the glasses on her face before he stood up to talk to the receptionist. He gave his Gringotts information while Lily skipped over to Sirius to show him the lenses.

Sirius grinned broadly at her. He said something to her that Harry could not hear. He had, no doubt, complimented her as she seemed to melt at the words. Then, he kissed her sweetly on the cheek before he hoisted her up in his arms and they made their way to the receptionist's desk.

"Do you mind if we meet with someone quick before we leave?" Harry asked in a low voice as he waited for his receipt.

Sirius shook his head as the receptionist handed Harry a bit of parchment to sign and one to keep. He thanked her before he motioned for Sirius to follow him out of the office.

"Who are we seeing?" Sirius asked as they made their way to the fourth floor.

"Draco Malfoy."

"I'm _fine_. The black outs are nothing, Harry. They've only happened a few times," he replied stubbornly.

"I want to talk to him about Greengrass," Harry hissed as he conveniently left out the fact that they had already discussed Sirius.

Once outside Malfoy's office, Harry knocked a few times. There was only a couple seconds pause before they were called to enter. Malfoy lounged behind the desk, his hands folded neatly together.

"So, you're Narcissa's son?" inquired Sirius as he took a seat across from Malfoy.

"You're the degenerate cousin," Malfoy said coolly.

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh, a small grin on his face. He was obviously amused and genuinely curious about Draco Malfoy. Lily settled against his chest and babbled about her glasses to Malfoy who didn't even give the small child the time of day.

"Did you tell her I was back?" inquired Sirius.

"Yes, actually, I did. She said if anyone had the gall to return from the dead, it would be you."

"Sounds like Narcissa," he said pleasantly.

"What have you been told about the Veil?" inquired Harry, shifting the topic away from Narcissa Malfoy.

He had told Sirius that Narcissa and Draco Malfoy switched sides before the end of the war. Detailed how Malfoy didn't give him up at Malfoy Manor when they were captured by Snatchers. He did not, however, go into detail about how Narcissa lied for him in front of Voldemort. He couldn't bring himself to tell Sirius how he had walked to his death, had survived yet another Killing Curse, had a weird experience of the afterlife with Dumbledore. He didn't think he could tell his godfather that he did not know he would survive, that he thought he was going to die and how the Resurrection Stone had brought him comfort. He certainly didn't want to tell his godfather he had been a Horcrux… it was something that only Ron, Hermione, and Ginny knew about.

"All I know is that Quinton, quite obviously, never got over his mother's death. With Astoria's own… deterioration as of late, he's gotten more interested in the Veil in the Department of Mysteries. He talks about it quite a lot," Malfoy started. "He's told Astoria he thinks there's a way to help her from dying prematurely. Whether that has to do with the Veil or whatever work he does at the department, I haven't the faintest idea. Astoria and I are more pragmatic about her health and the future. We have come to terms with the fact that she will die young just like her mother and are determined to make the most of it. I don't indulge Quinton when he starts to talk nonsense."

"What did Gareth Greengrass tell you when he brought Sirius in?"

"He told me that certain experiments were being done on the Veil and that Black's appearance was merely an unexpected surprise."

"Did you believe him?"

"No, of course not. Gareth Greengrass is very calculated. If there was an experiment done on the Veil, he would have already anticipated that pulling someone from beyond it was a possibility. He doesn't do anything without analyzing all possible outcomes first. He seemed… genuinely surprised and concerned that morning. He asked me to talk to no one about it and confirm nothing."

The door to the office opened unexpectedly. Harry whipped around to see Astoria Greengrass standing there. She looked even paler and frailer up close. There were tears pouring down her face. Her hands shook as she stared at Harry and Sirius. If Malfoy cared that they were still in his office, he didn't show it. In a few seconds, Malfoy was in front of his wife.

"What's wrong?" he questioned as his hands latched securely around her tiny biceps.

Harry's brow furrowed at the words. He had never heard Malfoy speak so softly and with so much love in his voice before. It was obviously a tone he reserved for those he loved and cherished.

"It's my dad," Astoria murmured miserably. "He was found dead this morning at home. Daphne met me downstairs when I was leaving."

Malfoy turned and sharply looked at Harry as though he expected an explanation as to why his father-in-law was dead. The only justification that Harry could think of was that since Quinton Greengrass had not performed the ritual correctly initially that Reuben Greengrass had died to restore balance. A life for a life. Unspeakable Burke's murder had been fruitless and unnecessary. Harry's mouth gaped open like a fish out of water until he snapped it shut. All he had were theories. While his ideas normally panned out, he wasn't willing to disclose them to the Malfoy family.


	7. A Funeral and a Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge, special thanks to Arnel for beta-ing for me like usual. 
> 
> Please, don't forget to leave a review. It's a small payment for the hours an author spends agonizing over their stories. It takes less than a minute. Thank you for the support.

" **Cheating Death"**

" **Chapter Seven: A Funeral and a Party"**

Harry squinted up at the beaming sun as he stepped out of the Ministry issued vehicle. The warm summer air made his black dress robes cling to him uncomfortably. He turned around and extended his hand. Ginny's delicate hand grasped his larger one as she rose gracefully from the car. Like her husband, she wore robes of black, save for her pearl earrings and necklace. Her hair was twisted up at the nape of her neck but Harry could see several tendrils that had fallen were sticking to her neck. She frowned at him as she was obviously uneasy at where they were. Harry knew it was a risky move but he needed a way to connect to the Greengrass family outside of the Ministry. Shouting matches and interrogations were getting him nowhere.

After Reuben Greengrass' death, rumors swirled like wildfire. There was no real cause of death that could be explained. It was as though the man dropped dead for no reason at all. Unknown cause was printed on the official death certificate.

Quinton Greengrass collapsed while in custody when he heard of his father's death. He huddled in the corner of the Ministry holding cell for the remainder of his time there. He refused to speak, eat, or drink. Proudfoot's team had turned over every stone they could think of but could not find any evidence that Greengrass had been in the Ministry the night Sirius was pulled from the Veil or the night Burke was murdered. Harry was forced to let Greengrass go from custody and placed a twenty-four seven tail on him. They had closed his Floo, barred him from Apparating, and placed a number of other travel restrictions on him so they were aware of his whereabouts at all times.

Harry looked up at the mass of people who had gathered around a new grave. He recognized Gareth Greengrass at once who was surrounded by his grandchildren. They clung to each other as tears spilled down their faces. Ginny shifted uncomfortably next to him as her fingers tickled the back of his hand. He withdrew his hand and placed it on the small of her back. Taking a step closer to her, he led her up the small hill to join the funeral service.

Astoria and Daphne Greengrass huddled together in an embrace. Lingering behind them was Draco Malfoy who held a small, blonde child in his arms. The boy could not have been much older than Albus. The small child seemed oblivious to what was going on around him as his fingers played with the collar of his father's robes and his legs swung merrily.

Harry and Ginny hung towards the back of the crowd in an attempt to avoid detection. It was fruitless. They were spotted nearly immediately as they made their way up the hill. Murmurs broke out amongst the guests but they ignored it all. Harry tugged Ginny closer to his side as she slipped an arm around his waist.

The whispers drew Gareth Greengrass' attention. His eyes darted around the crowd until they landed on the Potters. A sneer worked its way on his face as his arm wrapped itself around his lone grandson's shoulders.

The funeral began shortly after. The mourners crowded around in a semi-circle as the stark white casket was lowered into the ground. All of the Greengrasses knelt down and picked up clumps of dirt in their hands to sprinkle into the grave. Gareth Greengrass stood at the head of the grave and gave a heartfelt speech about his son. Daphne Greengrass spoke as well through gasps and sobs.

It was nearly a half hour later that the speeches concluded. People started towards the family to give their condolences. Immediately, brushing off the other well-wishers, Gareth Greengrass made a beeline towards the Potters. Harry instinctively tightened his grip around Ginny.

"You have a lot of gall coming here," Gareth Greengrass snapped. "You come to arrest my grandson? You come to arrest my granddaughters? Come to make a mockery of my son's death?"

"Of course, I haven't come to do any of those things," Harry spoke in a low tone and tried to keep his voice even. "I heard your son died and, as colleagues, I thought I would come and pay my respects. I am sorry about your loss."

"Somehow, I doubt that your intentions are that pure," Greengrass' words dripped with venom.

"I couldn't imagine losing one of my children," Harry continued. "Even if they were grown adults, I don't think I could bear it if one of them died before me. I know we have had a lot of animosity between us as of late, but I am truly just here because I am sorry for your unbelievable loss. I can't even fathom what you are going through right now."

"I would prefer you leave my son's funeral before you make it into a media circus," Greengrass hissed. "You are not welcomed here, Auror Potter."

Harry's jaw clenched but he said nothing. He could feel Ginny tensing next to him but she too remained quiet. Greengrass sneered one last time before storming away from the couple to join his grandson. Quinton Greengrass shifted uncomfortably as he stared at Harry.

Harry and Ginny made their way towards the Malfoy family. Astoria held her son in her arms and clenched him close to her chest. The little boy and his mother had their cheeks pressed firmly together. Malfoy stood beside them with an arm wrapped around the petite woman's shoulders protectively.

A look of exasperation shone brightly on Malfoy's pallid face as his pale eyes rolled upwards to the sky when the Potters stopped short of him. Ginny ignored the expression and smiled warmly at Astoria.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Ginny started genuinely. "I'm Ginny Potter and this is my husband, Harry. I can't even begin to comprehend what you're going through. You are in our hearts right now."

"Thank you," Astoria whispered.

"Who is this handsome little man?" Ginny turned her attention to the child. "You look just like your daddy."

The small child beamed and wiggled in his mother's arms. He stared at Ginny with the same pale eyes as his father. Unlike Draco, the little boy's eyes held a warmth that sparkled: his eyes that had not seen the horrors of war, and were still innocent and blissful. He waved at Ginny happily. He apparently held a friendliness that his father failed to possess.

"This is Scorpius. He just turned four a few months ago," Astoria replied as Scorpius nodded his head enthusiastically and held out four fingers.

"Hi!" Scorpius squeaked with his bright smile still dancing across his features.

"Oh, gracious! Four? What a big boy you are now! I have a little boy who is turning four tomorrow. You two will start Hogwarts together. You'll have to meet my little boy. His name is Albus," Ginny cheerfully told the child. "Maybe you two will be friends one day."

Malfoy snorted. Harry frowned and looked at his wife dubiously but remained silent. Ginny had a way with people that Harry never did. People seemed to be instantly drawn to her. It was an energy or aura that radiated off her. She put people at ease with her warm smile and she always seemed to know the right thing to say. Even Astoria leaned into Ginny's calming voice with a small, sad smile playing on her lips as she listened to the redhead talk with her son.

"Four has been much kinder to us than three," Astoria commented.

"Oh, three is the worst age. I only have one left to get through that stage."

"How many children do you have?"

"Four. Three boys and a girl," Ginny supplied as she reached out a finger and tickled the child underneath his armpit and sent him into a fit of giggles.

"Merlin, I couldn't imagine. You must be so busy."

"I haven't known what sleep is for a good five years at least," Ginny replied with a chuckle. "It's surprising how little sleep one can function on successfully."

"I believe I have my hands full with one child," Astoria said with a warm smile.

"They're well worth it though," Harry spoke up. "I am sorry about your loss. I was there in your husband's office when you came to tell him the unfortunate news."

Astoria turned her attention to Harry. Her eyes flicked rapidly over the features of his face as though she were looking for any sign that he was being insincere. Obviously, she was content in what she saw because she offered him a soft smile.

"Yes, I remember you. I believe your daughter was with you as well as another man."

"That was Lily and my godfather, Sirius Black," Harry supplied.

"Draco told me later," Astoria commented. "Draco speaks very highly of you."

Harry's eyes snapped to the man. Malfoy frowned at him, his eyes still cold and uncaring. Harry highly doubted that Malfoy had a kind word to say about him. They were cordial at best the few times they had seen each other after the war.

"I want to figure out what happened to your father," Harry spoke softly as he turned his attention back to Astoria. "I believe there was foul play involved. If you know anything, even if it seems insignificant, I'd like to hear about it. I am not going after your family despite what your grandfather might be telling you."

"Harry," Ginny whispered and squeezed his side gently.

"You and your sister are not under any sort of suspicion," Harry barreled on. "I cannot say the same for your brother. I believe he had a hand in your father's death."

"Quinton is a lot of things, Mister Potter, but a murderer is not one of them," Astoria murmured.

"Did you know that Quinton has been paying a lot of visits to Azkaban to talk with Augustus Rookwood? I know that Rookwood is his godfather, but you must also know that Rookwood is also a known Death Eater. I wouldn't put it past Rookwood to be using and manipulating Quinton."

"I did not," Astoria whispered. "I can't remember Quinton ever going to Azkaban when we were younger. He never talked or even mentioned his godfather before. He always seemed… embarrassed when we were younger. I never met Rookwood. He was in prison before I was born the first time around."

"Do you think that changed after he escaped during the second war?" inquired Harry. "Did Quinton have contact with him after Rookwood broke out of prison?"

"Quinton was never a Death Eater," Astoria snapped firmly.

"I'm not saying he was," Harry placated. "Rookwood could have sought him out, though. Built a relationship with him again. Maybe that's why he started visiting Rookwood in Azkaban."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Mister Potter," Astoria sighed. "Quinton and I were never that close. There was a big age gap between us. My memories of him consisted of summer holidays and the occasional Christmas when he would come home. By the time he left Hogwarts, I was a few years away from starting Hogwarts. I was much closer with Daphne than I ever was with Quinton. Daphne is Scorpius' godmother. She's the one who spoils and babies my child, not Quinton. While Daphne acted like my sister, Quinton always attempted to act like another father. I think when our mother died, he took it as his responsibility to act like another parental figure in our lives. Needless to say, I didn't want another father or a mother replacement. It created a drift between us."

"Harry," Ginny whispered again as she nodded her head to indicate that Gareth Greengrass seemed to be making a motion to break up their chat.

"If you think of anything that may be helpful, don't hesitate to contact me. It was a pleasure meeting you, Astoria," Harry said hurriedly. "Malfoy."

"Potter," Malfoy sneered.

Harry steered Ginny away from the Malfoys as Greengrass started storming across the graveyard. They hurried down the hill without looking back. Harry grabbed the handle to the Ministry issued sedan and wretched it open. Ginny climbed in first as Harry sneaked a look back at the hill. Greengrass stood watching them with his arms cross over his chest. Harry offered a small wave before following his wife into the car.

It was nearly a half hour later when the car stopped outside of Potter House. Ginny and Harry made their way up the drive to hear their children's voices and laughter ringing from the back garden. They made their way around the house to see the kids playing tag in the yard. Sirius sat on the sofa on the back deck with his fingers laced around a cup of tea.

"Mum! Dad!" James yelled as he waved frantically at them while he ran by.

The rest of the kids shouted their greetings breathlessly as they did not falter in their game. Harry and Ginny made their way up the few steps onto the back porch.

"See, we're perfectly fine," Sirius greeted them as he sipped on his tea. "They're all alive and unharmed. I'm not totally useless."

"Nobody said you were, Sirius," Ginny responded as she collapsed on the sofa next to him and kicked off her heels.

"You were going to send all the kids to Molly's for two hours to go to a funeral. I live here. I can mind the children for a short amount of time, you know."

"Did Ted help? I asked him to help you keep the little ones in line," Harry commented as he shrugged off the dress robe and his suit jacket to throw them on the back of a chair.

"He minded Jay while I handled Al and Elle," Sirius replied.

The four children ran around the back garden with beads of sweat pouring down their faces. James laughed as he just narrowly jumped out of the way from being tagged by Al. Lily sat on Teddy's shoulders, her fists clenching his blue hair, as he ran away from the younger boy.

"Teddy's so good with all the kids," Ginny commented as she propped her feet up on the coffee table and leaned her head casually against Sirius' shoulder. "He was a godsend every time we had a new kid. Always so helpful and amazing. It was hard when he started Hogwarts last year. The kids missed him so much. Especially, James. Those two were always so close."

"He's a great kid," Sirius agreed. "He reminds me a lot of Remus. Remus was always looking out for us in school, made sure we didn't get in too much trouble, made sure we did our homework, made sure we attended our detentions. He was a good friend. I see a lot of him in Teddy."

"He's more carefree than Remus, I think," Ginny said. "He reminds me of Tonks with the way he jokes and how he rolls with the punches."

"How was the funeral?" inquired Sirius with his voice thick with emotion.

Harry stole a glance at his godfather. Sirius' grip on his teacup tightened. His jaw squared. He could never talk about Remus or James for long before he would change the subject.

"Depressing and confrontational," Harry replied as he plopped on a chair and loosened his tie. "Greengrass did not take our presence as a peace offering. He seemed highly offended we were there."

"I don't know what you expected, Harry, honestly," Ginny supplied. "You have been having screaming matches with one another in the Ministry, you charged and then held his grandson in a Ministry holding cell for two days, and you're currently investigating his family."

"I know Quinton Greengrass is working with someone." Harry ran a frustrated hand through his black locks. "I don't know why they won't come out and give me some information to save themselves."

"Because, that's not how people work," Sirius commented dryly. "You could murder someone, Harry, and I could be accused of doing it and I would never give you up. You're my godson, my family. I would never hang you to dry to save my own arse."

"So, you think that Quinton Greengrass is protecting someone he cares about? That or he's in cahoots with someone he cares about?"

"People are often driven by two major emotions," Sirius started. "Love and fear. He's either protecting someone or he's scared shiteless of someone."

Harry stilled. His hands were clasped in his lap. His gaze was fixated on his children. Teddy roared loudly as he dramatically stomped his feet slowly. Lily flapped her arms like wings as the two pretended they were a dragon. Al shrieked as he hid behind James who held a long stick out in front of him.

"'Pel-pelliarmus!" James shouted through a fit of giggles.

Teddy twirled around, his grip tightened on his godsister's legs. Lily squawked loudly as her little hands stopped flapping and immediately clenched around Teddy's head.

* * *

Harry stood at the island in the kitchen slicing up fruit the Muggle way. He carefully cut the leaves off the strawberries before quartering them. His mind was barely on the task at hand. The week had been a whirlwind from Quinton Greengrass getting out of custody to attending the funeral of Reuben Greengrass the day before. He had never been so happy to see it was Saturday and let go of the workweek he had just had.

Reluctantly, Harry had also allowed Sirius some alone time while he and Ginny were at work as long as Sirius promised not to leave the house. Ginny popped in on Wednesday during her half hour lunch break and both Ginny and Harry spent half of the day Friday at home after the funeral. They had skipped Friday night dinner in order to finish their shopping, do some baking, and prep some food for Al's birthday party.

"Harry, I love you, but you are frustrating the ruddy hell out of me," Ginny commented.

He looked up from his task with a frown. She stood by the stove waving her wand in fast, jabbing motions as a spoon stirred ingredients for icing, knives sliced vegetables, ingredients flew from the fridge. She looked like Mrs. Weasley on a Friday night who waved her wand like a baton as though she led a food orchestra.

"What?" Harry questioned with a furrowed brow.

"Do it with magic," she responded. "It's taking you five times longer to cut the fruit the Muggle way. We have so much to do this morning. For Merlin's sake, Sirius, can you do something other than pick at my cheese tray?"

Sirius' hand hovered over the expertly cut cheeses that were arranged to look like a Golden Snitch. Except, half of a wing was gone as Sirius had been munching on the cheese as he watched the Potters prepare the food for the party.

"I can only help if I do it the Muggle way," Harry replied. "You know I'm rubbish at cooking when I have to do it with a wand."

Years of cooking as a Muggle felt natural to Harry. He had tried and failed to learn the finer art of magical cooking. Nothing ever tasted quite right and it took him twice as long to cook as he had to constantly look up the spells and techniques. He didn't mind cooking but he _had_ to do it the Muggle way. He felt more confident and at ease in a Muggle kitchen. When they built the house years ago, he made sure that the kitchen had been stocked with Muggle appliances.

"I don't cook," Sirius said flatly. "Honestly, I wasn't even allowed to make anything as a child. That's what house-elves were for. After Hogwarts, I learned how to make cereal and sandwiches. If I wanted a proper meal, I either went out to a restaurant, went to the Potters, or showed up at James'. Lily was a superb cook. She did it the Muggle way too. She hated cooking with a wand."

Sirius sent Harry a small wink.

"I suppose you starved at Grimmauld Place?" Ginny asked with an arched eyebrow with her hands on her hips.

"Well, I ate rats for two years on the run, so that was fun," Sirius said sarcastically. "Sandwiches were suddenly heavenly at Grimmauld Place. Plus, your mum always brought food. I have never really cooked. I don't even know how to cut that pineapple. Do you pick off the little scales or what?"

Ginny looked at him with a look of sheer disbelief on her face. She sighed heavily before waving her wand. A delicate, silver doe escaped the tip of her wand and galloped across the kitchen. It glided past Sirius, whose face paled at the sight of the Patronus, before it left through the back window.

"I called my mum to help. You two are useless," Ginny quipped as her wand went back to work around the kitchen.

"I resent that," Harry said as he grabbed the pineapple and sliced the top off. "All this fruit didn't just chop itself."

"You need to learn to cook with a wand, Harry, like a _normal_ wizard," Ginny stressed as she playfully bumped her hip against his. "You're going to be thirty next month. Time to put on your big boy pants."

"I didn't know you had a doe Patronus," Sirius said carefully.

"I didn't always," Ginny commented as her wand stilled in its motions. "It used to be a horse. Apparently, it changes if you experience a great emotional upheaval. At least, that's what Tonks told me once when hers changed."

"What happened to make it change into a doe?"

Ginny stilled. Harry stopped slicing the skin off the pineapple. There was no doubt in Harry's mind that Sirius understood that something must have happened to his godson for his wife's Patronus to change. He could remember the first time she casted the Patronus after the war. They had been lounging in her bedroom talking before she was to go back to Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione were obnoxiously loud in the other room. Annoyed, Ginny had sent a Patronus to remind them Silencing Charms existed for a reason when the doe appeared.

"I…" Ginny started as she turned to catch Harry's gaze.

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat. He knew the day would come that he'd have to tell Sirius the truth about the war, about the events leading up to him defeating Voldemort. Ginny had to confiscate Friday's issue of _The Daily Prophet_ and hide it from him as the press had figured out that Sirius Black was alive and back from the dead after being photographed outside of St. Mungo's days prior. The article detailed how Harry survived the Killing Curse twice and must have taught Sirius tricks to avoid death.

"We haven't told you everything about how the war ended," Harry said slowly as he laid down the knife. "Something… happened."

"You never thought it prudent to tell me before?" Sirius asked with hurt evident in his voice.

"Well, it was a lot of information at once," Ginny spoke quietly as Harry cast a non-verbal Silencing Charm on the kitchen.

"The night Voldemort tried to kill me when I was a baby, he accidently made me a Horcrux," Harry said stiffly and emotionless. "I had to walk, willingly, to my death to destroy said Horcrux. At the time, I didn't know I would survive. I thought I was going to die that night. I had come to terms with it. Voldemort hurled the Killing Curse at me, I had a very weird dream where I was at King's Cross with Dumbledore, and I came to. I pretended to be dead. Narcissa Malfoy checked to ensure I was dead and lied for me. Hagrid carried my limp body back to the castle. I needed to get back to the castle. I couldn't defeat him in the forest. Nagini was still alive."

"I saw Hagrid carrying Harry's body. He looked dead. I screamed. I was… devastated. I started running towards him but someone held me back. I think my dad maybe? I don't really remember. I knew that was the moment my Patronus changed. It had been a horse up until that point. I had cast it just weeks before. That was the only significant thing that happened."

The tension in the room was palpable. Sirius didn't dare look at either of them. His gaze was fixated on the cheese tray in front of him.

"Lily's Patronus was a doe," Sirius croaked without looking up. "James nearly died in a Death Eater attack while we were in the Order before you were born. We had just left Hogwarts. We were young and stupid. Thought we were the best fighters the Order could ask for. There was so much blood. Lily and I both tried to stop the bleeding but neither of us could accomplish it. Lily gave up attempting to help him and just Apparated with him to St. Mungo's. When we got to the hospital, she went to send her lamb Patronus to your grandparents to let them know. Out came this dainty little doe."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," Harry whispered. "Nobody knows I was a Horcrux except for Ginny, Ron, and Hermione."

"That's why you survived the Killing Curse? It was because of the Horcrux?" Sirius questioned as he finally looked up at his godson.

"That's the theory that Hermione and I subscribe to," Harry said warily. "I believe my mum's blood protection helped me as well. You see, Voldemort took my blood to came back. I think it tethered me to him as he killed the Horcrux in me."

"The other theories?"

"Have you ever heard of the Deathly Hallows?"

"The wand, cloak, and stone story?" inquired Sirius.

"I was in possession of all three by the end of the war. Well, I had the stone and the cloak going into the forest. The wand's allegiance was with me even though Voldemort had it. Ginny thinks I survived because I possessed all three Hallows and became the Master of Death. She believes I can't die unless I willingly allow it. I think it's rubbish."

"You've had quite a few close calls, Harry," Ginny spoke up hoarsely as Harry waved a dismissive hand. "There were a few times I had Healers telling me to prepare for the worst, to bring the children in to say their goodbyes, and then Harry pulls through."

"Ron thinks that since the Elder Wand's allegiance was aligned with me, that Voldemort wouldn't have been able to kill me with it. That a wand wouldn't kill its master," Harry continued. "Maybe it was one of those theories. Maybe it was none of them. Maybe it was because of all those factors. I don't know why I survived that night. I never expected to leave that forest alive."

"Whatever the reason is, I'm glad you're here, Harry," Sirius said with his voice thick with emotion.

Harry gave his godfather a tight smile before looking at the kitchen door. The sound of the Floo sounded from the parlor. There were soft murmurs, shuffling, and then the kitchen door burst open.

"Good morning, Potters!" Arthur greeted with a broad smile and a massive birthday present in his arms.

Molly Weasley didn't hesitate to grab an apron from the coat rack in the kitchen. Over the years, Ginny had collected a variety of aprons to wear while she baked or cooked. Harry had brought home a metal antique coat rack that he saw in a Muggle shop while out with Teddy one day several years back. She had eagerly hung all her aprons up in the kitchen, arranging them for nearly twenty minutes before she had been satisfied.

"Where are the children?" Molly inquired as she found Ginny's to do list on the counter and quickly read it over before she got to work next to her daughter.

"They're still sleeping," Ginny answered. "Can you do the cake? I'm awful at frosting. It always looks lumpy when I do it."

"Yes, yes. Harry, dear, please step away from the fruit. Just let me," Molly said sweetly to him as she flicked her wand and the knife started chopping the fruit at a steady speed.

"I did two cakes," Ginny said offhandedly. "I baked one in the shape of a rabbit because Al is obsessed with _Babbity Rabbity._ Harry showed me these Muggle cake tins. Remember I was telling you about them? They come in all sorts of different shapes. He bought me a whole bunch for Christmas last year. Anyways,I didn't think that was enough cake for everyone so I also baked a three-tiered cake to look like a set of books."

"Yes, I remember. I don't need tins, Ginny. I carve the cakes myself. I could teach you if you'd just sit down with me one day," Molly sighed as Ginny shot her husband an exasperated look. "You know, you could have just made some fairy cakes instead of baking two large cakes. There's no reason to do two cakes."

"I baked fairy cakes last night too. I didn't do the icing yet though."

Harry sank down in the stool next to Sirius looking between his wife and his mother-in-law. The two of them were a bit much in the kitchen. Their wands shot spells all over the place and someone was liable to get whacked in the head with flying ingredients. Once, when Teddy was six, he got hit in the head with a flying bag of flour as he tried sneaking some biscuits when the two of them cooked at the Burrow one Friday evening. The children knew to avoid the kitchen when they cooked.

"Either you placed a Silencing Charm on the kitchen again, or you guys are all mad at each other and not talking," Teddy mumbled as he entered the kitchen.

His blue hair was rumpled on his head. On his hip was Lily who looked just as disheveled as her godbrother. Her head rested on his shoulder with her eyes only opened a slit.

"Silencing Charm," Harry confirmed as he lifted the charm with a flick of his wand.

"Why do you guys always do that?" inquired Teddy as he took a seat next to his godfather at the island and allowed Lily to sit sleepily in his lap.

"So that you lot won't hear us talking about things you're not allowed to hear," Harry replied. "I was a kid once. I remember standing at the top of the stairs with Ginny, her brothers, and Hermione trying to listen in on conversations."

"Oi, Potter, can you stop reminiscing about our childhood and make breakfast for your children?" Ginny questioned in a teasing tone as she watched her mother smooth the icing over what appeared to be the book cake.

He made his way over to the pantry to pull out some beans and a bag of bread. He ducked carefully under the chaos of the kitchen that Ginny and Molly caused to settle in front of the stove to heat up the beans. He reached into the corner cabinet to pull out the toaster he purchased years ago. Ginny never used it as she had mastered toasting her bread with her wand. Harry, once again, relied on Muggle technology to help him cook.

"Why is half of the cheese Snitch gone?" Teddy questioned as he reached out to grab a cube for himself.

"Oi, we don't need to point things out like that," Sirius commented. "It's just missing half a wing."

"Teddy, honey, if you eat any more of my cheese tray, I will whack you with a spatula," Ginny commented.

"Why was Sirius allowed to have some, then?" questioned Teddy as Sirius reached out, grabbed a few cubes, and passed them to Teddy under the counter.

"Sirius Black, you will find yourself homeless tonight if you don't stop! I have about a hundred people coming over here in a few hours!" hissed Ginny.

The rest of the morning passed quickly. Ginny and Molly bickered and laughed while they finished prepping the food for the party. Harry and Sirius took the kids upstairs to get ready for the day. It wasn't long before Harry was tasked with setting up all the tables, chairs, and decorations around the back garden. Sirius and Arthur helped while the kids ran amuck around them. James had particular fun diving under chairs and staining his khaki shorts a bright green.

"Look, if it becomes too much, you're more than welcome to head inside," Harry explained to his godfather. "There are going to be a lot of people here today. There are going to be a lot of questions and a lot of curious people who probably will not leave you alone."

"I grew up surviving dull, pureblood mania parties that my parents would throw. The conversations were mind-numbing and awful," Sirius commented. "I think I can survive a child's fourth birthday party. I'm sure if you're friends with them, they're mostly pleasant people."

"Andromeda will be here. She always comes to all of the kids' parties," Harry added.

The various Weasley families were the first to arrive. They all plopped down their gifts before rushing towards Al to wish him a happy birthday. Out of all of his children, Al was least likely to enjoy the attention. He was fine around his family but Harry watched as he slowly tensed when the family friends started to arrive in the back garden. Members of the old D.A. all crowded around him with birthday wishes and comments of how he had grown since they last saw him. The small child shrunk back against Teddy's legs looking uncomfortably.

Sirius, noting the kid's discomfort, rushed over to the pair. Harry waved at Gwenog Jones briefly before he followed his godfather towards his two sons. Teddy was always a good boy who would stay with the younger kids if they felt uncomfortable in a social setting. He did the same thing for the Weasley cousins as well. He played the protective big brother role to any kid who bore the last name Potter or Weasley.

"Your dad was so cool, Teddy," Seamus Finnegan said. "I know we tell you every time we come over, but we can't help but think of him when we see you."

"He was bloody brilliant," Lee Jordan agreed. "The way he recruited us all that last year of the war was awesome. He practically headed the Order with Kingsley!"

"Why is it that you lot talk about the war every time I see you?" inquired Harry as he reached down to place a comforting hand on Al's shoulder.

"It's something we all share," Neville Longbottom said thoughtfully. "The last big thing we all did together, wasn't it?"

Al squirmed underneath his hand. Harry glanced down at the boy whose eyes pleaded to leave the conversation. Sirius must have picked up on the discomfort.

"Hey, Al, can you help me with something in the house?" asked Sirius.

Al nodded eagerly and reached out to grasp Sirius' hand in his. Teddy followed the two as the small group made their way to the house. Harry stuffed his hands in his short pockets and smiled at his old classmates.

"Was that Sirius Black?" whispered Lee. "I read about how he came back from the dead in the _Prophet_ yesterday."

"Yes, and I would appreciate it if you didn't bombard him with questions," Harry confirmed as he spotted Ginny animatedly talking to her old Harpies teammates. "It was very odd magic that nobody really understands. I can't give you any real answers because I don't know them myself."

"GRANDMUM TONKS!" James shouted as he and Lily barreled across the garden to greet the newcomer.

"Enjoy yourselves, alright? I got to make sure my children don't take out Teddy's grandmother."

Harry stepped away from the group who started murmuring in low tones about Sirius. Andromeda knelt down to engulf Lily and James into a hug. Al and Teddy made a mad dash from the back porch to greet her as well.

Andromeda made sure to make every single Potter and Weasley family event. She spent every party, holiday, and occasionally even came for Friday night dinner at the Burrow. She favored on Teddy but always made sure to dote on James, Al, and Lily as well. She insisted that the young Potter children call her grandmum so they wouldn't feel separated or left out when Teddy did. There were plenty of times she had all four kids over for sleepovers or joined the family on shopping outings or met them for dinner.

"Happy birthday, Al," Andromeda said as she swiftly kissed the boy on his cheek. "I cannot believe you are four already!"

It seemed like nearly everyone they invited to the party had attended. Harry couldn't help but wonder if it was because of the news of Sirius Black's mysterious return had intrigued them. Sirius seemed to evade the mass of people who made their way towards him. He kept close to Andromeda, the Weasleys, and Harry. The attempts seem to lessen as Ginny bounced from one group of people to another. She was a social butterfly, slipping into conversations easily and most likely gently scolding anyone from approaching Sirius. Harry rarely saw his wife during their parties as she loved socializing with everyone. Harry, meanwhile, normally stuck with the Weasleys and talked to anyone who approached him.

Harry, George, Ron, Arthur, and Sirius occupied the sofas and chairs on the back porch to watch the party unfold. All the Weasley and Potter cousins played various games together. Even Teddy and Victoire joined in despite often going off on their own during family events because they deemed themselves _too old_ to play with the younger kids half the time.

"I heard some interesting stories about Remus," Sirius commented before taking a swing of his butterbeer.

"A lot of people knew him because of the Order or through Hogwarts," Ron supplied.

"Someone said he and Kingsley were in charge of the Order?" inquired Sirius.

"When Dumbledore was murdered, Alastor took over," Arthur explained. "When Alastor was killed, nobody really wanted to step up in the Order. Scared, I suppose. The Ministry had fallen. Hogwarts was being run by Death Eaters. Kingsley easily fell into the role and asked Remus to help him. Remus' connections to Hogwarts students and alumni were extremely helpful. He made a list of Muggleborns to try and help them escape. It was Remus and Lee Jordan who came up with the idea of Potterwatch. Remus was the one in contact with those students who remained at Hogwarts and got a lot of good intelligence. Kingsley always commented that Remus' Hogwarts connections were what saved us in the end."

"None of them cared about his condition?"

"Not really," George added. "We all knew him for a year before the truth came out. He had been the best Defense professor any of us had ever had and a decent bloke at that. I bet he could have taught longer than a year. There would have been loads of people who would have rallied behind him."

"I hope he knew that before…" Sirius trailed off.

"I think he did," Arthur said with a nod. "Despite how awful things were, I don't think I had ever seen Remus look so happy. He loved Tonks so dearly even if he was a bit of a fool in the beginning. He was so excited about Teddy. He looked so insanely happy when he brought Teddy to meet us for the first time. Remus was surrounded by people willing to work with him, who looked up to him. Tonks made the comment to Molly and I once that they never had a moment's peace. Old students were constantly sending Patronuses to Remus. He had created new D.A. coins to communicate more effectively with those still at Hogwarts and those were always going off. He and Lee also had a set of mirrors they would communicate with about Potterwatch. The younger generation, at the time, certainly looked up to Remus and sought out his guidance. They all make sure Teddy knows how great his father was."

A soft smile graced Sirius' face. There was no doubt that he was glad his old friend had been accepted so widely and completely prior to his death. George promptly changed the subject of the conversation towards the joke shop and started to explain several new products that were in development.

The party lasted the better part of the day. The sun had started to set when people began bidding their goodbyes and leaving the back garden of Potter House. Lily collapsed in her father's arms and slept noisily on his shoulder. Ron bounced a cranky and tired Hugo on his hip as he continued to chat about the Chudley Canons while Hermione tried to find Rose as the kids craftily started a game of hide-and-seek as soon as some of the parents announced it was time to go home and go to bed.

Ginny's delicate tones rang throughout the garden as she demanded the kids come out from their hiding places. Teddy stood next to his godmother, his hair a cheerful yellow, as he roared with laughter at the younger kids' antics.

"You _got_ to find us, Aunt Ginny!" Fred's voice sounded from somewhere nobody could see.

"These kids are menaces," Sirius said with a bark of laughter.

"I have no doubt that it was James and Fred who initiated this," Ron replied in an exasperated tone. "Honestly, Hugo, what the hell bent your wand? Lily's sleeping. Just lay your head down on my shoulder like her and sleep if you're that tired."

"I dunwanna!" the two-year-old protested loudly.

"Oi, don't blame our kids," George snapped as he waved a hand between Harry and himself. "They're _angels_."

Harry snorted as a wide grin spread across his face. Ginny found Roxanne hiding in the bushes; she stomped up the back porch and collapsed moodily next to her father with her arms crossed over her chest.

"S'not fair!" she pouted.

"Better luck next time, Roxy," George commented as he patted the top of her head.

It took a better part of a half hour to find all of the children. Most of them trudged tiredly with their parents to exit the wards to the Apparition point. Al fretted all the way up the staircase and put on a vicious battle to forgo brushing his teeth. James nearly bounced off the walls on a severe sugar high.

It took another half hour to settle the boys into bed. Teddy disappeared into his own bedroom stating he didn't want to deal with James in such an exuberant state. Harry and Ginny even slipped Al in the older boy's room when they couldn't get James to calm down.

Harry collapsed onto the bed not bothering with pajamas or teeth brushing. He kicked off his shorts while laying down before turning to watch Ginny take the time to properly get ready. He welcomed a calm, peaceful night. Except, that would be far from what was going to happen.


End file.
